Latest Publications

El-Genk, M.S., T.M. Schriener, A.S. Hahn, Design Optimization and CFD and Performance Analyses of Miniature Axial-Centrifugal Flow Pumps for Circulating Molten Lead. J. Material Sciences & Engineering, 2022. 11:04 1-14
Schriener, T.M., M.S. El-Genk, Gas-lift enhanced natural circulation of alkali and heavy liquid metals for passive cooling of nuclear reactors. International Journal of Multiphase Flow, 2022. 143 103783
El-Genk, M.S, T.M. Schriener, Simulated false data injections attacks on emulated and hardware programmable logic controllers of the pressurizer in a representative pressurized water reactor plant. J. Cyber Security Technology, 2022. 6(4) 216-241
El-Genk, M.S, T.M. Schriener, A cybersecurity platform for simulating transient responses of emulated programmable logic controllers in instrumentation and control systems for a pwr plant. J. Cyber Security Technology, 2022. 6(1-2) 65-90
El Genk, M.S., T.M. Schriener, L. Palomino, Passive and Walk-Away Safe Small and Micro Reactors for Electricity Generation and Production of Process Heat for Industrial Uses. J. Nuclear Engineering and Radiation Science, 2021. 7 031302 1-12
El Genk, M.S., R. Altamimi, T.M. Schriener, Pressurizer Dynamic Model and Emulated Programmable Logic Controllers for Nuclear Power Plants Cybersecurity Investigations. Annals of Nuclear Energy, 2021. 154 108121
El-Genk, M. S. and M Pourghasemi, Experiments and Correlations of Saturation Boiling of HFE-7000 Dielectric Liquid on Rough Inclined Copper Surfaces. Int. J. Heat and Mass Transfer, 2021. 164 120540
El Genk, M.S., T.M. Schriener, A. Hahn, C. Lamb, R. Fasano, C. Lamb, LOBO Nuclear Reactor Power Plants CyberSecurity (LOBO NCS) Platform. Proceedings of the 12th Nuclear Plant Instrumentation, Control and Human-Machine Interface Technologies (NPIC&HMIT 2021), 2021.
Schriener, T.M. and M.S. El-Genk, Response of Programmable Logic Controllers of the Pressurizer in a Representative PWR Plant Following a False Data Injection. Proceedings of the 12th Nuclear Plant Instrumentation, Control and Human-Machine Interface Technologies (NPIC&HMIT 2021), 2021.
El-Genk, M. S. and M Pourghasemi, Subcooling Boiling Critical Heat Flux of HFE-7000 Dielectric Liquid on Inclined Rough Cu. Int. J. Heat and Mass Transfer, 2021. 175 121354

Recent Events

6/10/2020
UNM-ISNPS makes a strong presence at national meeting
12/14/2019
Masters Graduation - Raymond Fasano
8/31/2019
Forbes.com writes about ISNPS's SLIMM and VSLLIM reactor concepts
8/6/2019
ISNPS research highlighted at Cybersecurity Research Spotlight Forum

Contact

Physical Location:
Ferris Engineering Center
Room 1120

Mailing Address:
Institute for Space & Nuclear Power Studies
MSC01-1120
1 University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, NM 87131

Phone: 505.277.5442
Fax: 505.277.5433

Online: Contact Form

Welcome to the Institute for Space and Nuclear Power Studies

Welcome to the Institute for Space and Nuclear Power Studies (ISNPS). ISNPS was founded in 1984 as a research and development organization within UNM's School of Engineering with a focus on space power and propulsion technologies and related fields. ISNPS offers educational and professional training and conducts research in many fields of space nuclear power and space systems technology, nuclear reactor design, reactor neutronics and thermal-hydraulics, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), experimental and numerical heat transfer technology, heat pipes, boiling, thermoelectric converters, dynamic energy conversion, integrated system modeling, and nuclear cybersecurity simulation.

We currently have research assistanceship opportunities, check here for details

Founding Director

Mohamed El-Genk, Distinguished and Regents' Professor of Nuclear, Mechanical and Chemical and Biological Engineering and the Founding Director of the Institute for Space and Nuclear Power Studies has been named the recipient of the 2010 Donald Q. Kern Memorial Award by the Transport and Energy Process Division of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. This award given in honor of Donald Q. Kern, a pioneer in process heat transfer, is one of the most prestigious in the world in recognizing significant contributions to the fields of applied heat transfer or energy conversion or in the translation of research results into useful technological applications. Dr. El-Genk joined the recognized leaders in the field of heat transfer who received this award since 1974.

He has also been named named the recipient of the American Nuclear Society thermal-hydraulics Technical Achievement Award for 2015. The award is in recognition of his exceptional contributions to the understanding of terrestrial and space reactor thermal hydraulics phenomena and for his impact on the thermal hydraulics community as a researcher, educator, and leader.

Dr. El-Genk was named the recipient of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers 2017 Heat Transfer Memorial Award for his outstanding contributions to boiling enhancement; immersion cooling of electronics; forced, natural, and combined convection in rod bundles; heat pipes and thermosyphons; impinging and swirling jets heat transfer; thermal-hydraulics of nuclear reactors; and thermal management of space nuclear power systems.

He has also been named the recipient of the ANS 2021 Reactor Technology Award in recognition of extraordinary contributions towards advancing space and micro reactor technologies

Dr. El-Genk is a fellow of the American Nuclear Society, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, and the International Association for the Advancement of Space Safety, and an associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. He is a member of the Assembly of the International Heat Transfer Conference (IHTC), the Organizing, Steering and U.S. Scientific committees of the 2010 14th IHTC, and the Scientific Committee of the International Center for Heat and Mass Transfer.

UNM, Purdue work to develop validated physics-based machine learning autonomous control architecture for microreactors

Distinguished and Regents' Professor Mohamed El-Genk and Research Assistant Professor Timothy Schriener have begun a three year research project titled "Demonstrating Autonomous Control, Remote Operation, and Human Factors for Microreactors under Prototypic Conditions in PUR-1." UNM-ISNPS are collaborating on the Purdue University-led project along with Curtiss-Wright Nuclear Division and Argonne National Laboratory. For the three-year project, the collaborative team will develop a validated, physics-based, machine-learning, autonomous-control architecture for the UNM Very Small, Long-Life Modular (VSLLIM), a liquid sodium, natural circulation-cooled microreactor, as well as demonstrate its application for remotely operating and controlling the PUR-1 research reactor at Purdue University. The award will offer minority undergraduates and graduate students at Purdue and UNM the opportunity to participate in the research activities and conduct portions at Argonne National Laboratory.

You can read the UNM news room release here: UNM News Room Release

First Year Progress Report for NASA Grant to Develop Advanced Lightweight Heat Rejection Radiators for Space Nuclear Power and Propulsion Systems

The Institute for Space and Nuclear Power Studies (ISNPS) at the University of New Mexico (UNM) has released the first year progress report for a NASA Early Stage Innovation project to develop and optimize the design and demonstrate the performance of an innovative lightweight heat pipes radiator for operating at 500 - 600 K with redundant and resilient functionality and an aerial density ~1/3 current State of the Art. The research team at UNM-ISNPS and Nuclear Engineering Department is led by Mohamed El-Genk (PI), Distinguished and Regents' Professor and founding Director, and includes Research Assistant Professor Timothy Schriener (Co-PI) and Assistant Professor Osman Anderoglu (Co-PI) as well as NE graduate student Christopher Wolfe. The report summarizes the first year progress towards the project objectives of (a) developing and optimizing the design of an advanced lightweight heat pipes radiator panel concept using thermal and structural modeling and simulation analyses, and (b) investigating methods of diffusion bonding and characterize interfaces for the HOPG/Ti/C-C and Ti/C-C composite structures. The NASA ESI project has been renewed for a second year with more exciting research opportunities in developing this key technology for future exploration of the Moon, Mars, and deep space

Final Report for UNM-ISNPS/SNL DOE-NEUP Collaboration on Cybersecurity for Nuclear Plant Instrumentation and Control Systems

UNM-ISNPS in collaboration with Sandia National Laboratories has released the final project report on the effort to develop a Nuclear Instrumentation and Control Simulation (NICSim) platform to aid in investigating the cybersecurity of nuclear power plant instrumentation and control systems. This work was supported by a multi-year DOE Nuclear Engineering University Program (DOE NEUP) grant. This progress report, titled NICSim: Nuclear Instrumentation and Control Simulation for Modeling Cyber-Attacks, summarizes the main findings and accomplishments from this innovative research effort developing the LOBO Nuclear CyberSecurity (LOBO NCS) platform. This platform links emulated PLCs in the I&C systems of a representative Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) plant to Matlab Simulink physics-based, dynamic models of the integrated plant and components. The report also presents results of using the LOBO NCS platform to simulate cyber-attacks on the digital I&C system of a representative PWR plant and for the control system of a space nuclear reactor power system with multiple CBC loops. The LOBO NCS platform will support future ISNPS research efforts related to developing and testing advanced control concepts for microreactors and space nuclear power systems. The final report along with all six milestone reports submitted to DOE NEUP are available under http://isnps.unm.edu/reports/.

Final Report: NICSim: Nuclear Instrumentation and Control Simulation for Modeling Cyber-Attacks

Task 5 Milestone Report: Integration and Characterization Testing of the LOBO Nuclear CyberSecurity (LOBO NCS) Platform and OpenPLC

UNM-ISNPS Part of DOE Nuclear Energy University Program Grant

Distinguished and Regents' Professor Mohamed El-Genk and Research Assistant Professor Timothy Schriener received DOE NEUP funding for the project titled "Demonstrating Autonomous Control, Remote Operation, and Human Factors for Microreactors Under Prototypic Conditions in PUR-1." UNM-ISNPS are collaborating on the Purdue University-led project along with Curtiss-Wright Nuclear Division and Argonne National Lab. This research builds on UNM-ISNPS's expertise on modeling and simulation of nuclear power plants and digital I&C systems.

You can read the UNM press release here: UNM Press Release

UNM-ISNPS Receives NASA Grant to Develop Advanced Lightweight Heat Rejection Radiators for Space Nuclear Power and Propulsion Systems

The Institute for Space and Nuclear Power Studies (ISNPS) at the University of New Mexico (UNM) is selected to receive a three-year NASA research grant for a total of $650,000. The grant expected to start in January 2022 will support the development of space nuclear reactor power and propulsion systems to enable NASA's future planetary exploration missions to the Moon, Mars and beyond. The research team at UNM-ISNPS and Nuclear Engineering Department is led by Mohamed El-Genk (PI), Distinguished and Regents' Professor and founding Director, and includes Research Assistant Professor Timothy Schriener (Co-PI) and Assistant Professor Osman Anderoglu (Co-I). The research team will also include graduate and undergraduate students in the NE Department. The research effort aims to develop and optimize the design and demonstrate the performance of an innovative lightweight heat pipes radiator for operating at 500 - 600 K with redundant and resilient functionality and an aerial density ~1/3 current SOA. The foldable radiator panels will employ integrated metal-graphite composite fins to enhance heat spreading and rejection into space. The lightweight and strong C-C composite armor will protect the radiator panels against damage by impacts of space debris and micro meteoroids. The headers for circulating the primary liquid metal coolant in the panels will employ perforated dividers with optimized orifices for reducing the required pumping power.

UNM SOE Release - UNM's ISNPS receives NASA Early Stage Innovation Award to make Mars and moon missions possible

UNM Press Release - Shooting for the moon: UNM receives NASA Early Stage Innovation Award

Research Team

The ISNPS group picture taken in June of 2022 outside of Hodgin Hall. From left to right, Front: Quoc Duong, Ragai Altimimi, Dr. Timothy Schriener, Christian Arguello, Prof. Mohamed El-Genk, Christopher Wolfe. To view each person individually, you may view the faculty and student indices.

Welcome to the Institute for Space and Nuclear Power Studies

We currently have research assistanceship opportunities, check here for details

Recent News

ISNPS Research Areas

Space Nuclear Power Publications Boiling Heat Transfer Publications Radioisotope Power Publications

SLIMM & VSLLIM Publications Dynamic Conversion Publications Nuclear Cybersecurity Publications

CFD Publications Thermoelectric Conversion Publications Heat Pipe Publications

To find our publications on more research areas click here