UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Much of the discussion about technologies to combat climate change usually focuses on carbon capture and storage and solar geoengineering, but for years scientists have been studying another technological solution to complement these efforts. William Walters, assistant professor of nuclear engineering at Penn State, will discuss advanced nuclear reactors and their role in combatting climate change during a talk at 4 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 21. The talk will take place via Zoom.

Walters’ research focuses on the fields of nuclear reactor neutronics modeling and computational radiation transport methods. He has a wide variety of experience in Monte Carlo, deterministic and hybrid modeling of nuclear systems, with applications including reactor design, radiation shielding and nuclear safeguards. He currently leads a nuclear energy university program project on molten-salt reactor analysis for nuclear materials accountancy. He also is designing irradiation capabilities for the Penn State Breazeale Reactor to analyze molten salt samples and developing advanced methods for computational modeling of nuclear systems.

Walters’ talk is part of the spring 2022 EESI EarthTalks series, “Energy and Climate Policy, Part 2: Strategies for Getting to Net Zero.” The series is presented by Penn State’s Earth and Environmental Systems Institute.