Addie Lupercio took second place in a campus art competition for her image entitled “Uranium Dioxide Asteroids.” Addie describes this art as, “A scanning electron image of uranium dioxide powder prior to being high energy ball milled. The powder image was altered using a texture effect and colorized to depict asteroids burning in the atmosphere.” As a winner of the competition, Addie’s art will hang in the new Micron Center for Materials Research at Boise State University.
Uranium dioxide has been the benchmark nuclear fuel for decades. As researchers investigate advanced, accident-tolerant nuclear fuels, uranium dioxide continues to be a critical component in many compositions. You can learn more about the advanced nuclear fuel work happening in the AML here, here and here.