Research Expertise and Interest

nuclear reactor design, fuel cycle analysis, fusion reactors, nuclear power, nuclear engineering, nuclear reactor physics, nuclear reactor safety

Research Description

Massimiliano Fratoni is Xenel Distinguished Professor and Chair in the Department of Nuclear Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley (UCB). He received a Laurea in Nuclear Engineering from Università di Roma “La Sapienza” (Italy), and a MSc and a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley. Prior to joining the Nuclear Engineering Department at UCB, he held a Research Scientist position at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and a faculty position at The Pennsylvania State University. Prof. Fratoni’s main research interests are in sustainable nuclear energy through advanced reactors and advanced fuel cycles. His research is focused on developing innovative engineering solutions that will facilitate the widespread deployment and adoption of advanced nuclear energy technologies. Prof. Fratoni is author of more than 200 publications in the areas of advanced reactors and advanced fuel cycles. He received the American Nuclear Society Early Career Reactor Physicist Award (2018) and the Untermyer & Cisler Reactor Technology Medal (2024). Among several other concepts, he is actively investigating solid and liquid fuel molten salt reactors, accident tolerant fuels, and fast spectrum systems. Professor Fratoni's research group also develops computational methods to support reactor analysis, and in particular multi-physics modeling and uncertainty quantification. Additional research areas include nuclear space applications, nuclear fuel cycle analysis, geological repository/far-field criticality, and fusion blanket design.