About CINEMa

The Center for Innovation of Nuclear Energy Materials (CINEMa) at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) is a hub for multidisciplinary collaboration, focused on materials needs to accelerate the deployment of advanced nuclear energy systems. 

Meet the team of nuclear and materials researchers at PNNL who are part of the CINEMa.

Leadership

Andy Casella is a nuclear engineer and research leader at PNNL.

Andrew (Andy) Casella, PhD
Nuclear engineer and CINEMa Director

Andrew Casella, joined PNNL in 2006, as a Department of Energy Office of Nuclear Energy (DOE-NE) alternate sponsored fellow after completing his graduate research focused on modeling gas and particulate transport in canistered used nuclear fuel dry storage systems. He now is a nuclear engineer focused on the characterization of materials performance in nuclear systems. Read More

 

Nuclear Energy Materials Experts

Isabella van Rooyen

Isabella J van Rooyen, PhD
Senior technical advisor
Advanced Material Systems Integrated Nuclear Materials Manufacturing Leader

Isabella J. van Rooyen joined PNNL in December 2021 as an advisor for Advanced Material Systems where she has been developing and implementing new nuclear materials development and advanced manufacturing strategies. She is the United States representative on the International Advanced Manufacturing and Materials Engineering Taskforce for the generation IV international forum (GIF) and the Material Development technical area lead for the Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technologies (AMMT) Program for the Department of Energy (DOE) Nuclear Energy Enabling Technologies Initiative. Prior to joining PNNL, van Rooyen supported DOE’s vision and needs in advanced materials and manufacturing planning and execution as the national technical director for the Advanced Methods for Manufacturing Program of the DOE-NE. Read More

 

Stuart Maloy is a nuclear materials expert at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

Stuart Maloy, PhD
Advisor and Advanced Reactor Materials Leader

Stuart Maloy joined PNNL in March 2022 as a senior nuclear materials advisor in the Reactor Materials Group. He has 33 years of experience at Los Alamos National Laboratory, where he specialized in radiation-based effects on materials. He is also a national laboratory professor in the Department of Nuclear Engineering at the University of New Mexico and is a fellow of the American Nuclear Society. He has undergraduate (1989), masters (1991), and PhD (1994) degrees in materials science from the Case Western Reserve University and is a registered professional engineer in metallurgy. Read More

 

Brady Hanson is a senior-level researcher solving challenges in nuclear energy.

Brady D. Hanson, PhD
Nuclear engineer and Light-Water Reactor Materials Leader

Brady Hanson has more than three decades of experience in the nuclear energy field and industry. He joined PNNL in 1998 as a senior research scientist and was promoted to staff scientist in 2005. He currently leads experiments as principal investigator of the Spent Fuel and Waste Science and Technology campaign for the DOE-NE. Read More

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Advisors

Mark Nutt

Mark Nutt, PhD
Director, Nuclear Energy (NE) Sector, Energy and Environment Directorate (EED), PNNL

Mark Nutt joined PNNL in September 2018 as director of the Nuclear Energy Sector at PNNL, overseeing programmatic support to the DOE-NE, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), and commercial and international clients. Read More

 

Adam Poloski is the group leader for Nuclear Chemistry and Engineering research

Adam Poloski, PhD
Division Director Nuclear Sciences Division, EED, PNNL

Adam Poloski is director of the Nuclear Sciences Division in EED at PNNL. He took on this leadership role in August 2024 following about 5 years as group leader for the Nuclear Chemistry and Engineering Group, where he was responsible for line management of EED research activities in PNNL’s Radiochemical Processing Laboratory, a Hazard Category 2 nonreactor nuclear research facility, and in the 318 Building, a radiological facility that houses unique capabilities with a wide array of radioactive sealed sources and generating devices. Read More

 

Maria Sushko

Maria Sushko, PhD
Computational scientist, Fusion Energy Sciences (FES) Sector, PNNL

Maria Sushko is an expert in innovative multiscale atomistic simulation methodologies, such as classical density functional theory specifically applied to solid/fluid interfacial dynamics. Her research focuses on developing a generalized modeling framework of crystallization processes that bridge atomic-scale dynamics and the formation and structure of mineral products at the mesoscale. The insights gained using these atomistic-to-mesoscale models include identifying the central role of correlated ion and water dynamics in the electric double layers of mineral surfaces in driving surface selectivity and alignment during the oriented attachment processes and discovering that interfacial chemical gradients may drive the formation of mesocrystals through preferential nucleation of new particles in the interfacial region. Read More

 

Portrait of Robert Oelrich

Robert Oelrich, PhD
Research line manager, Nuclear Engineering, National Security Directorate, PNNL

Robert Oelrich is the Nuclear Engineering Group Lead within the National Security Directorate at PNNL. The Nuclear Engineering Group serves multiple internal and external projects with subject matter experts (SMEs) in nuclear, fuel, and materials performance for a wide range of nuclear applications. Read More

 

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Contact Us

Connect with us at cinema@pnnl.gov to explore potential research partnerships.