Header Search Widget
The SALT Research Group

UC Berkeley Nuclear Engineering Department

PhD

Nicole Johnson

BIOGRAPHY

Nicole started working on her Nuclear Engineering PhD in 2023. She graduated from UC Irvine with a BS in Chemical Engineering and a license to operate the university’s TRIGA reactor in 2019. She then spent the next 4 years working as a nuclear plant operator at Beaver Valley Power Station, near Pittsburgh.

PROJECTS

At UCB, she is currently working on the ThorCon Natural Circulation Loop, which is will simulate ThorCon’s proposed NaFBe salt coolant in the secondary loop of their reactor. The goal is to determine the degree to which the high temperature difference between the hot and cold legs will cause the stainless steel piping to be dissolved in the hot leg and deposited in the cold leg. This project involves a large volume of 600°C salt to remain molten and flowing for six months, so there is a lot of design, fabrication, and assembly involved!

UNDERGRADUATE MENTORING

  • Sean Tang
  • Sebastian Barnes
  • Valentino Saiz

ORCiD profile: https://orcid.org/0009-0005-3409-4935

nicole_johnson@berkeley.edu

David Park

1st Year PhD Student

dpark6@berkeley.edu

Timothy Pickarski

BIOGRAPHY

Tim is a Ph.D. candidate in the SALT Research Group researching the thermodynamics and mass transport of volatile solutes in molten FLiBe for tritium management and extraction applications relevant to liquid breeding blankets for nuclear fusion and advanced reactor safety. He focuses on the use of electroanalytical techniques to quantify tritium’s source term contribution via activity and transport measurements paired with in-situ and post-situ spectroscopy. Before attending Berkeley, he received his B.S. in Materials Science and Engineering from Penn State University and worked as a corrosion engineer at Bayer CropScience. During his undergraduate study, he studied the reduction of transition metal oxides in molten lithium chloride salt with the Kim Group under Dr. Stephanie Castro Baldivieso.

PROJECTS

Electrochemical sensing of hydrogen and beryllium hydride in FLiBe.

Printed microelectrode development for hydrogen sensing in FLiBe and COMSOL modeling of their transport equations.

Thermodynamic reference electrode development in FLiBe.

Electrochemical measurements of carbonate anion stability in FLiBe.

Redox chemistry of uranium chloride in sodium chloride-uranium chloride eutectic.

Beryllium safety manager for the SALT lab.

CONFERENCE TALKS

  • Towards Tritium Measurement: Evaluation of Electrochemical Methods to Measure Hydrogen in Molten FLiBe | Tritium 2025 – Oral
  • Evaluating Hydrogen Bonding in Molten Halides: Implications for 2LiF-BeF2 (FLiBe) Tritium Breeding Blankets | 248th ECS Meeting – Oral
  • High-temperature coordination phenomena in molten salts and their impact on electrochemical data in the Tritium-FLiBe system | MyGRC – Chemistry and Physics of Liquids July 2025 – Poster
  • How does understanding Hydrogen in Molten Halides help define a roadmap to Electrochemical Tritium Management in FLiBe Breeding Blankets? | Reactive Metal Workshop (RMW 18) 2025 – Poster
  • Evaluation of an Ag/AgF Reference Electrode for Electrochemical Measurements of Molten 2LiF-BeF2 (FLiBe) | PRiME 2024 – Oral
  • Electrochemical Thermal Desorption Spectrometry development of hydrogen degassing from graphite in molten 2LiF-BeF2 (FLiBe) | INGSM 2024 – 24th International Nuclear Graphite Specialist Meeting – Poster
  • Fluoroberyllate High-Temperature Molten Salt: Beryllium Safety Experience in a University Research Lab | Beryllium Health and Safety Committee Nevada – Oral
  • (Presented in lieu of first author Haley Williams) Speciation and Diffusivity of Hydrogen in Molten 2LiF-BeF2 for Nuclear Fission and Fusion Applications | 245th ECS Meeting – Oral
  • Microelectrode-Based Diffusivity Measurements of Hydrogen in Molten 2LiF-BeF2 | 245th ECS Meeting – Poster

AWARDS

Student Award for Best Oral Presentation at Tritium 2025

GEM Graduate Fellowship 2025

UNDERGRADUATE MENTEES

  • Claire T. Chen (UCB Phys & Astrophys) COMSOL modeling of microelectrode construction.
  • Eric Smith (UCB MechE) CAD and Experimental Development for microelectrodes and test stand.