Kory D Linton
Senior Program Manager, Nuclear Fuels and Materials
Bio
Kory D. Linton is a Senior Program Manager at Oak Ridge National Laboratory with more than a decade of leadership in nuclear fuels and materials research. He manages ORNL’s participation in the Nuclear Science User Facilities (NSUF) and, in that role, serves as the laboratory’s technical point of contact for external partners accessing capabilities across the full workflow—from HFIR neutron irradiations through analysis of irradiated materials in shielded hot-cell facilities and advanced characterization at the LAMDA Laboratory.
Within DOE’s Advanced Fuels Campaign, Kory has led research on fuel safety and transient testing. His contributions include the in-cell implementation of the Severe Accident Test Station (SATS) in Building 3525, the installation of new hot-cell systems for mechanical testing of irradiated fuel cladding, and, most recently, precision machining equipment in 3525 for preparing test specimens from irradiated fuels. In addition to these capability deployments, he has directed irradiation testing in support of advanced manufacturing and reactor demonstration programs, including the Transformational Challenge Reactor and the Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technologies (AMMT) program. Through these efforts, Kory oversaw the irradiation of UN-TRISO fuels in multiple reactors, advancing new fuel forms and fabrication methods.
Kory oversees collaborative irradiation programs with industry and university partners. His current work includes materials research supporting TerraPower’s Natrium advanced reactor under DOE’s ARDP. He has authored or co-authored more than 180 technical reports, journal articles, and conference papers documenting advances in accident-tolerant fuels, transient testing, and the performance of irradiated materials.
He earned an M.S. in Industrial Engineering from the University of Tennessee, focused on scaling fabrication of UN-TRISO FCM fuel, and a B.S. in Business Administration also from UT. He is a graduate of Battelle’s inter-laboratory leadership training program.