On 16 November of this year, Tommaso Barani won one of the ENEN PhD prizes. Student at Polytechnic University of Milan (PoliMi), he was rewarded for his work on “mechanistic modelling of fission gas behaviour in conventional and advanced nuclear fuel”. His PhD thesis arrived in the top three best PhD theses.

More specifically, Tommaso worked on “on the amelioration of computer codes simulating the behaviour of nuclear fuel rods, by developing new physical models describing the evolution under irradiation of gaseous fission products. The goal of the work was to complement such computer codes for the analysis and design phases of next generation nuclear reactors”, he explained.

Granted by the European Nuclear Education Network (ENEN), the ENEN PhD Event & Prize is organised every year to promote the research work of young researchers in the nuclear field. It consists of up to 12 presentations of PhD students nominated by ENEN members and selected by the ENEN PhD prize jury.

I was genuinely surprised by receiving this prize, especially in the light of the tough competition involving many high calibre researchers and encompassing very different research fields”, remembered Tommaso. “This prize will help me to enlarge my network, since I will employ it to cover the expenses of an international conference in the next year (hopefully!). In addition, being one of the most prestigious prizes for student in the European nuclear community, it will constitute an important result achieved in my career, enriching my curriculum vitae”, he stated.


The 3 Winners of the ENEN PhD Event & Prize 2020 are:

• Marco TIBERGA, “A novel advanced multi-physics simulation tool for the analysis of the Molten Salt Fast Reactor”
• Bastien FAURE, “Modern neutronic calculation strategies for generation IV sodium-cooled nuclear cores”
• Tommaso BARANI, “Mechanistic modelling of fission gas behaviour in conventional and advanced nuclear fuel”