Mines Reactor Physics Research Group · M-PRISM

Valerio Mascolino

Assistant Professor of Nuclear Science and Engineering, Colorado School of Mines

My group builds methods that simulate nuclear reactors with Monte Carlo-level accuracy at a fraction of the cost: hybrid particle transport, real-time 3-D reactor kinetics, and ML-enabled digital twins for advanced reactor design.

Explore the research Join the group

PhD, Virginia TechFormerly Principal Nuclear Engineer, Argonne National Laboratory

7 projects · 19 current and visiting students · 17 open research topics · 4 collaborating institutions

Email me Book a meeting (external site) CV (PDF, 97 KB) Google Scholar (external site)

Research

All projects in detail

Real-time 3-D time-dependent neutron kinetics

Monte Carlo-level accuracy for 3-D reactor transients, at least 1,000× faster.

2 papers since 2025

ML/AI-enabled simulators and digital twins

Digital twins built on full 3-D transport instead of point kinetics.

2 papers since 2025

Validating GRACE: in-core flux from ex-core detectors

Seeing inside small reactor cores using only detectors placed outside them.

1 paper since 2025

Open-source research reactor design for proliferation resistance

An open OpenMC benchmark of the IAEA-TECDOC-643 plate-type core.

OpenMC models of research reactors: JSI TRIGA Mark-II and MURR

MURR model agrees with MCNP to within 50 pcm across six control-blade states.

2 papers since 2025

Multi-physics modeling of fission-product precipitates in UO₂ fuel

Linking reactor neutronics to how irradiated fuel changes at the microstructure scale.

1 paper since 2025

Lunar fission surface power: radiation shielding

Making dose calculations tractable for reactors on the Moon.

1 paper since 2025

Student results

Meet the team

2026 · Award
Jake LaFore, an undergraduate, won the best speaker award at the Undergraduate Physics Conference of Colorado.
Jun 2026 · ANS Annual Meeting
Undergraduate Daris Paine presented neural-network thermal feedback for the fission matrix method.
Nov 2026 · ANS Winter Meeting
PhD student Samah Balouza and undergraduate Jake LaFore each lead a paper on the JSI TRIGA Mark-II reactor.
Summer 2026 · Argonne
Undergraduate Thomas McCoy carried out his research project as a Research Aide at Argonne National Laboratory.

Recent publications

All publications

Bold: V. Mascolino · Dotted underline: student in the group

Journal articles

Feb 2027
Journal article The fission matrix method for criticality search in Heat-Pipe Micro Reactors
C. Vita, N. Abrate, V. Mascolino, W. Walters, N. Stauff, F. Franceschini, and S. Dulla

Annals of Nuclear Energy, vol. 241, p. 112847

doi:10.1016/j.anucene.2026.112847 (external site)
Aug 2026
Journal article Evaluation of locked rotor accident in support of MURR low-enriched uranium conversion
D. S. Yoon, E. H. Wilson, G. S. Wilson, C. Braun, M. Pinilla, G. Wang, E. E. Feldman, V. Mascolino, and W. Mohamed

Nuclear Engineering and Design, vol. 455, p. 114930

doi:10.1016/j.nucengdes.2026.114930 (external site)Project: OpenMC models of research reactors: JSI TRIGA Mark-II and MURR
Aug 2026
Journal article Hydraulic performance evaluation of University of Missouri Research Reactor LEU fuel element – comparison of CFD and empirical methods
G. Wang, C. Bojanowski, E. Feldman, M. Pinilla, W. Mohamed, V. Mascolino, and E. Wilson

Nuclear Engineering and Design, vol. 454, p. 114932

doi:10.1016/j.nucengdes.2026.114932 (external site)
2025
Journal article Impact of U-10Mo HALEU Fuel Element Tolerances on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Reactor Safety and Operational Performance – Neutronics
V. Mascolino, S. Yang, L. M. Jamison, K. E. Anderson, D. S. Yoon, J. A. Stillman, L.-W. Hu, W. M. Mohamed, and E. H. Wilson

Annals of Nuclear Energy, vol. 219, p. 111307

doi:10.1016/j.anucene.2025.111307 (external site)
2025
Journal article Monte Carlo Modeling of the MicroCHANDLER Antineutrino Detector During Neutron Beam Irradiation Experiments
V. Mascolino, A. Haghighat, and J. M. Link

Nuclear Science and Engineering, vol. 199, pp. 1772–1793

doi:10.1080/00295639.2025.2471698 (external site)

Conference papers

Nov 2026
Conference paper Comparing Fission Matrix Approaches using a JSI TRIGA Mark-II Reactor Model
S. Balouza, M. Krašovic, A. Pungerčič, and V. Mascolino

Transactions of the American Nuclear Society, Phoenix, AZ, USA

Project: Real-time 3-D time-dependent neutron kinetics
Nov 2026
Conference paper Evaluation of the Effect of Control Rod Positioning on One-Group Effective Nuclear Data for Ex-Core Flux Reconstruction in the JSI TRIGA Mark-II Reactor
J. LaFore, H. Wang, A. Pungerčič, R. Ponciroli, and V. Mascolino

Transactions of the American Nuclear Society, Phoenix, AZ, USA

Project: Validating GRACE: in-core flux from ex-core detectors
Jun 2026
Conference paper Neural Network-Enabled Thermal Feedback Modeling in the Fission Matrix Method
D. Paine and V. Mascolino

Transactions of the American Nuclear Society, Denver, CO

Project: ML/AI-enabled simulators and digital twins
Apr 2026
Conference paper Solving Large Scale Fission Surface Power Reactor Shielding Problems
M.-J. Wang, J. Johnson, G. Sjoden, N. J. Roskoff, and V. Mascolino

Proceedings of the International Conference on the Physics of Reactors (PHYSOR 2026), Turin, Italy

doi:10.5281/zenodo.20803193 (external site)Project: Lunar fission surface power: radiation shielding
Apr 2026
Conference paper Next-Generation Research Reactors: Novel Virginia Research and Education Reactor (VA-RER)
A. Haghighat, T. Franck, B. Seidulla, and V. Mascolino

Proceedings of the International Conference on the Physics of Reactors (PHYSOR 2026), Turin, Italy

Team

All 19 members

Students

Do reactor physics research with us

17 research topics, from real-time reactor kinetics to digital twins for lunar reactors, each broken into concrete tasks for PhD, MS and undergraduate students.

How to join See the 17 topics

Collaborating institutions

Argonne National Laboratory
Jožef Stefan Institute
University of Missouri Research Reactor
Politecnico di Milano