PNNL

Nicholas Kucinski joined Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in September 2023 as a nuclear engineer on the Nuclear Material Storage, Transportation and Logistics team in the Energy and Environment Directorate. He works on the STANDARDS spent nuclear fuel data and analysis tool (formerly UNF-ST&DARDS) code development team as an analyst supporting the development of new features, such as on-the-fly dose rate analysis and loading plan optimization. He also performs dose rate analysis and studies the impact of effluent dose on the Department of Energy Office of Nuclear Energy’s consolidated interim storage facility project.

Prior to joining PNNL, Kucinski spent two years at Oak Ridge National Laboratory supporting analysis of high burn-up/low enriched uranium (LEU) + light water reactor fuel and its impact on dry storage. Kucinski began his career as a nuclear analyst at Holtec International, analyzing dry storage systems and developing spent fuel loading plans for nuclear power plants.

• Spent nuclear fuel storage, transportation, and disposal
• Advanced reactor, high burn-up, and LEU + spent nuclear fuel 
• Nuclear fuel decay heat, source term, and dose rate analysis

• SCALE (ORIGAMI, Polaris, MAVRIC, TRITON)
• Monte Carlo N-Particle (MCNP) code
• Python
• MySQL
• COBRA-SFS
• RELAP5-3D

• MSE in nuclear engineering and radiological sciences, University of Michigan
• BSE in nuclear engineering and radiological sciences, University of Michigan

2024

• Richmond D.J., B.J. Jensen, J.B. Clarity, M.E. Higley, and N.M. Kucinski. 2024. Temperature-Time Modeling of Spent Fuel Cladding in Dry Storage Casks. PNNL-35805. Richland, WA: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.
• A Alpan, N. Kucinski, A. Shaw, B. Hiscox, G. Radulescu. April 2024. Fuel Assembly and Irradiation Parametric Study for Extended Enrichment and High-Burnup Light-Water Reactor Spent Nuclear Fuel in Dry Storage Casks and Transportation Packages. NUREG/CR-7306. ORNL/TM-2023/2938. Oak Ridge, TN. Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

2023

• Alex Shaw, Nicholas Kucinski, and Briana Hiscox, "Criticality Safety Recommendations for the Treatment Of Extended Enrichment And High Burnup Fuel for Storage and Transportation Systems," Proceedings of ICNC 2023 – The 12th International Conference on Nuclear Criticality Safety, Sendai, Miyagi, Japan, October 1–6, 2023. 

2022

• Kucinski, Nicholas, Stefanovic, Peter, Clarity, Justin, and Wieselquist, William. Impacts of LEU+ and HBU Fuel on Decay Heat and Radiation Source Term. United States: N. p., 2022. Web. doi:10.2172/1971719.