Speaking at Queen's University on June 17, Dr. Youho Lee, an associate professor from Seoul National University’s Department of Nuclear Engineering, discussed "Comprehensive Studies of Zirconium Hydrides in Nuclear Fuel Cladding."
Attended by students, researchers and faculty of the Queen's nuclear materials group, the event was organized by Dr. Mark Daymond, as part of the Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering's Distinguished Speakers Series.
Reflecting on the talk, Dr. Daymond shared, “Prof. Lee’s work to understand the impact of high levels of hydrogen in zirconium cladding materials for pressurised water reactors is highly complementary to the work being done at Queen’s to understand the effect of hydrogen on CANDU pressure tubes. There will be lots of opportunities to collaborate!”
Furthermore, the event provided Queen's researchers with an excellent opportunity to discover the cutting-edge nuclear materials research being conducted at Seoul National University.
About the Speaker
Dr. Youho Lee specializes in nuclear fuel materials, fuel performance modeling, and reactor safety and design. His research focuses on high-performance light water reactor fuel materials, including Accident Tolerant Fuels (ATFs) and high burnup fuels, fuel performance code development, Small Modular Reactor (SMR) and fuel design, long-term storage of spent fuels, hydride embrittlement in zirconium alloys, and advanced reactors’ fuel materials.
Dr. Lee earned his B.S. from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) in 2009, and his M.S. and Ph.D. in nuclear engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2011 and 2013, respectively. He currently serves as an associate professor in the Department of Nuclear Engineering at Seoul National University (SNU). Prior to joining SNU, he worked as an assistant professor at the University of New Mexico in the U.S. from 2016 to 2019. In 2024, he chaired the national committee for the preliminary feasibility study on Advanced Fuel Technology Development of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. He is currently staying at MIT as a visiting scholar for sabbatical year.