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

Recent News

• UNM-ISNPS Researchers Successfully Demonstrate Remote Operation and Control Platform of VS...
• ISNPS Researchers Granted Patent for Miniature Dual-Stage DC Electromagnetic Pump Noval De...
• SNL Technical Staff Members Visit ISNPS to Learn about Microreactor Research
• Masters Graduation - Keenan Kresl-Hotz
• Seniors in the in the Nuclear Engineering Department visit the UNM-ISNPS Lab




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




Recent News

• UNM-ISNPS Researchers Successfully Demonstrate Remote Operation and Control Platform of VS...
• ISNPS Researchers Granted Patent for Miniature Dual-Stage DC Electromagnetic Pump Noval De...
• SNL Technical Staff Members Visit ISNPS to Learn about Microreactor Research
• Masters Graduation - Keenan Kresl-Hotz
• Seniors in the in the Nuclear Engineering Department visit the UNM-ISNPS Lab

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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.

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UNM-ISNPS Researchers Successfully Demonstrate Remote Operation and Control Platform of VSLLIM Microreactor

The University of New Mexico's Institute for Space and Nuclear Power Studies (UNM-ISNPS) developed a secure, remote operation and control platform of the Very-Small, Long-Life, Modular (VSLLIM) microreactor. This fully passive walkaway safe microreactor design developed at the ISNPS has been licensed by UNM Rainforest Innovation to Eagle Nuclear Energy ( https://eaglenuclear.com/ ) for commercial development and deployment.

The VSLLIM microreactor is factory constructed, assembled, and sealed and deployed either on a portable platform or installed at a designated site below ground and mounted on seismic isolation bearings. The VSLLIM nuclear microreactor can continuously generate 1.0 - 10 MW of thermal power for 92 and 5.6 full power years without refueling, respectively. Unlike current nuclear reactors cooled by pressurized water, the VSLLIM concept is cooled by natural circulation of liquid sodium metal at elevated temperature for efficient conversion to electricity and operates below atmospheric pressure. The VSLLIM microreactor offers redundant means of control and passive removal of the decay heat generated within the core after shutdown. More information of the VSLLIM micro reactor design can be found at ( https://isnps.unm.edu/publications/topic/small_modular_reactors_and_microreactors/ ).



Recently, the UNM researchers and their collaborators and graduate students at Purdue in West Lafayette, IN, successfully demonstrated the operation and viability of the platform, a first for a microreactor. This platform uses AI/Machine Learning algorithms and secure communications architectures. It is developed under a Department of Energy Nuclear Energy University Program (NEUP) award led by Assistant Professor Stylianos Chatzidakis at Purdue University and Distinguished and Regents' Professor Mohamed El-Genk and Research Associate Professor Timothy Schriener at UNM-ISNPS.

On 7 October 2025 UNM-ISNPS hosted a visit by Professor Chatzidakis and two graduate students Zachery Dahm and Konstantinos Vasili from Purdue University for firsthand training on using and implementing the UNM-ISNPS platform for remote control and transient operation of the physics-based digital twin of the VSLLIM microreactor.



On 29 October 2025, members of the research team at Purdue University successfully demonstrated for the first time the remote control of the VSLLIM digital twin located inside the UNM-ISNPS lab in Albuquerque, New Mexico from West Lafyette, Indiana. Purdue's graduate students Zachery Dahm and Konstantinos Vasili served as the remote operators in the demonstration.

This innovative research at UNM-ISNPS trained reinforcement learning algorithms for the autonomous control of the digital twin of the VSLLIM microreactor. This digital twin physics-based model functions and responds in the same manner as the actual microreactor would in real time.



The UNM-ISNPS secure remote operation and control platform for the VSLLIM microreactor uses two-stage encryption to protect the signals transmitted between the remote operator terminal and the reactor digital twin. This system setup secures the command signals sent by the operator through a workstation graphical user interface (GUI) to the reactor's controllers as well as the monitoring data transmitted from the reactor to the operator against interception by hostile actors.

The developed secure communication and control scheme system has been implemented using the LOBO Nuclear CyberSecurity platform developed by UNM-ISNPS in collaboration with Sandia National Laboratories. It links the programmable logic controller (PLC) incorporating the trained machine learning algorithms of the VSLLIM digital twin for real-time control testing and cybersecurity investigations of the reactor control systems.



The remote operators at Purdue were able to use the remote operator terminal to successfully start up the VSLLIM microreactor from an initial subcritical condition to nominal operating power. The Purdue team began the startup procedure for the VSLLIM digital twin by sending the command to the controller to bring the reactor to criticality at zero power. After the operators used the plotting capabilities in the GUI to confirm that the reactor had reached a critical state, they sent a command to the controller to bring it to a thermal power level of 1 MW. The graduate student operators at Purdue subsequently commanded the system to make multiple changes to the operating power of the reactor to 2 MW and 4 MW, with the commanded changes enacted by the trained machine learning algorithms within the reactor controller. The digital twin was then commanded to shut down and return the reactor to a subcritical state.

This research demonstrated the possibility of a human operator using a remote-control terminal to command the VSLLIM digital twin and the controllers at the University of New Mexico. Remote and autonomous operation is an essential technology for the future development and deployment of micro nuclear reactors, advancing the US Department of Energy's goals for the expansion of safe nuclear power to meet growing energy needs around the world. More information on UNM-ISNPS published research on these topics and others can be found at: ( https://isnps.unm.edu/publications/topic/ ).



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ISNPS Researchers Granted Patent for Miniature Dual-Stage DC Electromagnetic Pump Noval Design for Space Reactors Power Systems, Liquid Metals Cooled Micro-Reactors for Terrestrial Power and High Temperature Industrial Applications

Mohamed S. El-Genk is Distinguished and Regents' Professor of Nuclear Engineering and Founding Director of the Institute for Space and Nuclear Power Studies at the University of New Mexico ( https://isnps.unm.edu/publications/topic/ ), and Dr. Ragai Altamimi, El-Genk's former PhD student who is currently a member of technical staff at DOE Oak Ridge National Laboratory. They conceived a novel high-performance of a dual-stage miniature Direct Current (DC) Electromagnetic pump design and demonstrated its superior performance and operation characteristics. This invention has recently been granted US Patent No. 2026/0254336 A1 on 27 August 2026.



This pump design with no moving parts is for circulating high-temperature fluids such as Alkali Liquid Metals of Na, K and Li and NaK eutectics, and molten lead and Lead-bismuth eutectic. These fluids are used for cooling nuclear reactor power systems for space exploration missions and planetary surface power on the Earth moon and plant Mars, micro nuclear reactors for terrestrial power generation, remote mining operations, research test loops, and industrial applications operating at temperatures up to 500oC. El-Genk has 10 US patents issued to his credit and more than seven patents' applications pending and disclosures. ( https://isnps.unm.edu/publications/topic/space_nuclear_power_and_propulsion_systems/ ).

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SNL Technical Staff Members Visit ISNPS to Learn about Microreactor Research



On Thursday July 2nd, 2026, four members of the technical staff at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque visited the University of New Mexico's school of Engineering and the Institute for Space and Nuclear Power Studies (UNM-ISNPS) to learn about existing research capabilities in the areas of design, modeling and secure remote operation and control of walk away safe small and micro modular reactors, and cybersecurity modeling of nuclear power plant digital instrumentation and control systems. Elliott Pelfrey, Dr. Zack Dodson, James Love and Chantel Nowlen Peterson from SNL joined Associate Research Professor Dr. Timothy Schriener and Distinguished Regents' Professor Mohamed El-Genk of the UNM-ISNPS during their visit of the ISNPS's Energy Conversion and Thermal Hydraulics Lab. They discussed and examined past experimental research performed at UNM-ISNPS supporting the proposed power upgrade of SNL's Annular Core Research Reactor to 4.0 MW(t).

The UNM-ISNPS team presented and demonstrated the recently developed capabilities for secure remote control and transient operation platform of the VSLLIM microreactor ( https://isnps.unm.edu/publications/topic/small_modular_reactors_and_microreactors/ ). This walkaway safe microreactor design developed at the ISNPS has been licensed by UNM Rainforest Innovation to the Eagle Nuclear Energy ( https://eaglenuclear.com/ ) for commercial development and deployment. The stock of this startup company, with mass uranium ore deposits in the states of Nevada and Oregon in USA, is presently trading on the Nasdaq exchange under the symbol "NUCL". An additively manufactured scale of the VSLLIM microreactor appears in the background of the posted pictures.

During the SNL staff visit, Professor El-Genk and Dr. Schriener presented and demonstrated the operation of the developed platform at the UNM ISNPS for investigating false data injection attacks on emulated programmable logic controllers of nuclear reactors. The visitors observed the response of the digital twin model of the VSLLIM microreactor to the simulated cyberattack. This ongoing research includes coupling physics-based digital twin models of nuclear reactors to control systems and developing and demonstrating for the first time in recent history the capabilities needed for the secure remote operation and control of microreactors such as VSLLIM and the training for current and future workforce development.

More information on UNM-ISNPS published research in these topics others including reactor thermal hydraulics and safety, nuclear fuel and materials, heat pipes and thermosyphons, and nuclear power and thermal propulsion systems for space exploration and planetary surface power. These and other areas of research expertise at UNM-ISNPS can be found at: ( https://isnps.unm.edu/publications/topic/ )

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Masters Graduation - Keenan Kresl-Hotz



ISNPS student Keen Keenan Kresl-Hotz has graduated with a M.S. degree in Nuclear Engineering at the University of New Mexico, studying under his advisor Professor Mohamed S. El-Genk, Distinguished and Regents' Professor of Nuclear, Mechanical, and Chemical and Biological Engineering and Founding Director of the Institute for Space and Nuclear Power Studies (ISNPS). Keenan's defended his thesis, titled CFD Simulation Analyses of the Blowdown Phase of a Depressurized Loss of Forced Cooling Accident in a HTGR, on April 2, 2026. Shown in the image are his committee members Professor Svetlana Poroseva, Assistant Professor Eric Lang, and Research Associate Professor Timmothy Schriener. Keenan's research used Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) to investigate the helium-air mixing in in High Temperature Gas-cooled Reactor (HTGR) containment cavities during the blowdown phase of a simulated Depressurized Loss of Forced Cooling (DLOFC) accident. The analyses investigate the effects of the CFD turbulence model, numerical mesh refinement, time-step size, and flow rate and temperature of the injected hot helium into the scaled reactor cavity. The results of the performed CFD simulation analyses, using the commercial code STAR-CCM+, are compared with reported measurements from an experiment conducted at City College of New York (CCNY). This work was performed as part of a DOE Nuclear Engineering University Program Integrated Research Project led by CCNY collaborating with UNM-ISNPS and Purdue University to investigate CFD modeling of thermal-hydraulic phenomena for advanced nuclear reactors.

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Seniors in the in the Nuclear Engineering Department visit the UNM-ISNPS Lab



Nuclear Engineering seniors at the University of New Mexico visited the ISNPS Thermal-Hydraulics Lab B136 in the basement of Centennial Engineering building to learn about Modular Microreactor research being done at ISNPS. They viewed and inspected the 1:5 scale model of the developed invention of the fully passive, walk away safe, fast spectrum, sodium cooled VSLLIM (Very Small Long-Life Micro) reactor. It can be deployed with the entire power plant on an 18-wheeler truck, a railcar, or a barge. The plant would generate both heat and electricity for remote communities, military bases in desert and cold areas, and remote mining operations. The VSLLIM plant employs open air Brayton Cycle Engines to convert the reactor heat to electricity at an efficiency > 40%. It operates fully passive, requires no water cooling and can generate 1.0 to 10 MW of thermal power continuously for > 90 yr and > 6 yr, respectively. VSLLIM modular micro reactor design and associated IP disclosures have been licensed by the UNM Rainforest Innovation to Eagle Energy ( https://https://eagleenergymetals.com/ ) for commercial development, deployment, and marketing.

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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.