DOE-NE invests more than $6 million in university nuclear research infrastructure

These awards follow last week's announcement of more than $56 million to support nuclear technology development, early-career faculty research activities, and student research at U.S. universities and national laboratories. Since 2009, the DOE has awarded over $84 million for university nuclear energy infrastructure projects and upgrades. The DOE’s Infrastructure Program is managed by the Nuclear Energy University Program with support from the Nuclear Science User Facilities.

Reactor upgrades: Seven universities are receiving a total of more than $3.7 million for reactor upgrades (see links below for project abstracts). The largest single award, to the University of Maryland–College Park, is for “upgrades to the Maryland University Training Reactor cooling and neutron activation analysis systems for enhanced operational reliability and capability.” All seven awardees are listed below:

• University of Maryland–College Park, $1,465,001
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology, $898,769
• Washington State University, $740,121
• Oregon State University, $416,405
• Ohio State University, $87,158
• Pennsylvania State University, $78,531
• Missouri University of Science and Technology, $25,865

General scientific infrastructure: In addition to money for reactor upgrades, awards of more than $2.6 million will help universities acquire or enhance other scientific infrastructure (see links below for project abstracts). The largest single award, to Pennsylvania State University, is for a “high-speed X-ray imaging system under a chemically protected environment for advanced high-temperature non-water-cooled reactor experiments.” Here is the full list of award recipients:

• Pennsylvania State University, $326,898
• University of Wyoming, $300,000
• Purdue University, $258,750
• North Carolina State University, $250,000
• Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, $250,000
• University of Nevada–Las Vegas, $250,000
• Oregon State University, $249,885
• University of Utah, $244,942
• University of New Mexico, $209,305
• University of Nevada–Reno, $180,779
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology, $136,000.

The Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy on June 21 announced just over $6.3 million in funding for 18 projects at 15 universities in 14 states. The funding builds up scientific infrastructure and upgrades research reactors at universities to expand the nation’s scientific capabilities and train the next generation of nuclear energy scientists and engineers.