Giovanni Pastore

Giovanni Pastore, Ph.D., was a postdoctoral researcher and staff scientist at Idaho National Laboratory from 2012 to 2020. During part of this time, he led the development team for the nuclear fuel analysis code Bison. Dr. Pastore earned his master’s degree in Nuclear Engineering (2008) and Ph.D. cum laude (2012) from the Politecnico di Milano (Italy). Besides INL, he worked at the European Commission (JRC-ITU Karlsruhe, Germany), the Halden Reactor Project (Norway), the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, and Newcleo in Italy. His research focused mainly on software development for engineering nuclear fuel performance analysis and on advanced modeling of fission gas behavior.

Giovanni had a tremendous impact on the development of Bison. His work on fission gas transport and release was absolutely essential for the credibility of the code. His contributions in this area continue to be heavily used. He also made significant impact in the broader area of light water reactor fuel pin modeling, especially related to analysis of postulated loss of coolant accidents. During his time at INL, he was twice the principal investigator for a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Scientific Discovery through Advanced Computing (SciDAC) project, was the INL principal investigator for a DOE Integrated Research Project on hydride behavior in spent fuel, and was the DOE chief investigator on an International Atomic Energy Agency Coordinated Research Project on accident tolerant fuels.

Giovanni passed away in 2023.