College Football Player Trades Helmet for Hard Hat to Gain Valuable Experience with Nuclear Instrumentation
By Amy Viars
The commitments of a Division I college football player can be demanding. On top of a challenging course schedule, players must attend conditioning workouts, practices, and team meetings not only during football season, but also in the months after the final down is played.
Photo courtesy of UT sports.
Summer is often a time for taking a few extra classes or spending time with family and friends, but don’t tell that to Norfolk, Va.-native, David Yancey, a senior at the University of Tennessee (UT) and a running back on the school’s football team.
While many of his teammates enrolled in one or two courses this summer, Yancey instead gained professional experience through a full-time internship with the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education’s (ORISE) Independent Environmental Assessment and Verification (IEAV) program.
Majoring in nuclear engineering with plans of obtaining a master’s degree, Yancey spent the summer measuring radioactive contamination through the use of in situ gamma ray spectroscopy (ISGRS)—a sophisticated technology that records levels of radioactive contamination during environmental site surveys.
Yancey examined how ISGRS can be used to pinpoint specific areas of radioactive material above and below the soil surface. ISGRS essentially deploys the in situ object counting system (ISOCS) detector—a laboratory-grade instrument—into the field to record detailed information about the radionuclide distribution of contaminants present in real-time.
Gamma rays emitted during the decay of radionuclides are detected in the instrument’s lead-collimated detector. The collimator acts very similarly to an “optical lens,” thereby limiting the field of view and enabling technicians to take readings from a precise area without collecting background gamma radiation from heavily contaminated rooms or nearby sources.
Yancey’s research involved evaluating the sensitivity of the ISOCS detector by determining whether it could "see" a small radioactive particle on the fringe of its field of view. The experiment required measurements to be recorded at controlled distances away from the detector, which was set up in an open field adjacent to ORISE’s South Campus.
Yancey worked with IEAV technicians to assemble an automotive engine lift to raise and lower the 400-pound ISOCS detector to record radiation measurements of known radioactive sources below ground and across the surface. Yancey’s work has enabled IEAV technicians to begin data analysis in an effort to increase the program’s independent environmental assessment and verification expertise.
Labeled as a "real grown man" by his teammates for balancing a demanding degree program with a rigorous schedule of football practices and workouts, Yancey credits his interest in nuclear technology to his father, who works with nuclear reactors on submarines. After learning of ORISE’s internship from one of his professors at UT, Yancey jumped at the opportunity to spend his summer learning about the health physics profession.
"My teammates really respect me for having such a demanding major along with a workload similar to someone who has already graduated from college," he said. "Some view my commitments with amazement, while others look at me like I’m crazy."
Though Yancey lacked the free time that most of his teammates had over the summer, he said the most exciting part of the internship was having the opportunity to work hands-on with health physics equipment.
"The experience enabled me to study trends of radioactive sources, as well as the limits and capabilities of radiation detectors," explained Yancey. "I look forward to applying what I learned this summer to future coursework."