Victor Uriarte (Mechanical Engineering)
About DOE Fellow:
Victor Uriarte graduated from Florida International University in the Spring of 2010 with a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering with a robotics certificate and a Minor in Mathematics. He will be pursuing his grad school in Cornell University. After he left DOE, he was accepted by MIT for a summer research program and started tutoring for the Florida International University tutoring program. He was later hired by Intel corp. to perform chip reliability testing where he is currently a full-time intern. His future goals are to graduate from Cornell University with a PhD and become a professor.
Accomplishments as a DOE Fellow :
Mr. Uriarte worked under the supervision of Dr. McDaniel on the preparation of Bentonite and Potassium-Magnesium plugs to simulate the clogs in the waste transport pipelines. The goal of this project was to investigate the best method of dislodging radioactive waste from DOE pipelines. His part of the project was to help create a homogeneous paste of Bentonite that will be used to create a clog inside a pipe. After the plugs were made, Victor analyzed and characterize the blowout pressure of the plugs, the pressure needed to be applied to the pipes in order for the plugs to move through the tubes.