I recently released a series of posts about the U.S. Department of Energy funding of new projects under its Advanced Research Projects Administration-Energy program. These ten projects are not the only grants from the DoE for energy research.
Today the DoE announced sixty-four million dollars of research grants for universities, national laboratories and private nuclear companies. The eighty-nine projects selected to receive grants are working on nuclear energy research, facility access, and technology and infrastructure. The grants are being issued by three DoE nuclear programs.
The Nuclear Energy University Program (NEUP) is the result of the DoE consolidating its university support programs under a single program in 2009. The NEUP funds nuclear energy research and equipment upgrades at U.S. colleges and universities. It provides students with educational support.
NEUP is distributing forty-seven million dollars to support sixty three U.S. university-led nuclear energy R&D projects in twenty nine states. The NEUP says that these projects will "maintain US leadership in nuclear research across the country by providing top science and engineering faculties and their students opportunities to develop innovative technologies and solutions for civil nuclear capabilities". Another five million dollars is being granted to support eighteen university-led projects for research reactor and infrastructure improvements. NEUP says that. “These projects will provide important safety, performance and educational upgrades to a portion of the nation's 25 university research reactors.”
The Nuclear Energy Enabling Technology (NEET) Program was established to develop “crosscutting” technologies that directly support and complement the DoE’s Office of Nuclear Energy. It will focus on advanced reactor and fuel cycle concepts that offer dramatically improve performance.
Five million dollars will be given to five R&D projects at national laboratories, universities and private nuclear companies. These projects will carry out research that will help address “crosscutting nuclear energy challenges that will help develop advanced sensors and instrumentation, advanced manufacturing methods, and materials for multiple nuclear reactor plant and fuel applications”.
The Nuclear Science User Facilities (NSUF) was created to permit research opportunities to nuclear researchers. Users are allowed free access “to world-class nuclear research facilities, technical expertise from expertise from experienced scientists and engineers, as well as assistance with experiment design, assembly, safety analysis and examination.”
The NSUF program will grant six million six hundred thousand dollars to two university-led projects and one nuclear industry-led project to study nuclear fuel and material applications. These projects will focus on “research, facility access costs, and expertise in: experimental neutron and ion irradiation testing, post-irradiation examination facilities, synchrotron beamline capabilities, and technical assistance for design and analysis of experiments.”
Ed McGinnis is the principal assistant secretary for nuclear energy at the DoE. He said, “Because nuclear energy is such a vital part of our nation's energy portfolio, these investments are necessary to ensuring that future generations of Americans will continue to benefit from safe, clean, reliable and resilient nuclear energy. Our commitment to providing researchers with access to the fundamental infrastructure and capabilities needed to develop advanced nuclear technologies is critical.”