- Tour of UTK Nuclear Engineering Department laboratories
FORNL organized a tour of the University of Tennessee - Knoxville Nuclear Engineering Dept.'s new Zeanah Engineering Complex on July 16, 2026. Attendees included Roger Macklin, Bronson Boucher, Jim Golden and Gregory Swanson.
We began at 10:00am with a presentation by Dr. Brian Wirth, department head of Nuclear Engineering. Dr. Wirth highlighted the advanced research programs, enhanced by close ties with Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the Y-12 Nuclear Security Complex, UCOR, new nuclear companies at the East Tennessee Technology Park (ETTP), and more than one hundred nuclear related companies located within fifty miles of Knoxville. The Nuclear Engineering Department's graduate program is consistently ranked as one of the top in the nation and there is now a significant increase in the number of undergraduate students.
This was followed by a walking tour (conducted by Michael Ratliff, Departmental Safety Officer) of the Graphite Pile Lab, Control Room, Accelerator Research Center, and the Fast Neutron Source. The tour had been allotted one hour, but we went well overtime, finishing around 11:45am. We had very enthusiastic attendees with lots of questions and an informative guide in Michael.
As a retired former Health Physicist and lead State Division of Radiological Health inspector for UTK's "Broad License," I somewhat naturally concentrated on the health and safety aspects of these new-to-me facilities. and they were top notch in my experience.
—Roger Macklin