U-M nets $8.5M to help with Nuclear Energy Innovation Hub

Wednesday, June 9, 2010 | Source: Concentrate

Nuclear energy might not be the newest idea for generating power, but cutting edge research on it will create a lot of new research positions and even more funding at the University of Michigan.

The U.S. Dept of Energy named U-M as a partner in the Nuclear Energy Innovation Hub, which will focus on design and engineering advances of nuclear reactors. That equals $8.5 million over five years, which shakes down to a handful of new post doctoral research positions and 10 new graduate student research positions.

"This could also lead to additional faculty down the road," says William Martin, professor and chair of the Dept of Nuclear Energy at U-M.

Nine current engineering faculty members will participate in the research project. Part of their research on the Consortium for Advanced Simulation of Light Water Reactors will be held in Ann Arbor and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

U-M's end of the research will use powerful supercomputing to simulate how materials age in the harsh environment of a nuclear core. This will allow engineers to better assess how long a reactor can safely operate or determine what changes can be made to allow the reactor to run longer.

Source: William Martin, professor and chair of the Dept of Nuclear Energy at the University of Michigan
Writer: Jon Zemke