Shelbie Harris
Staff Writer
Three separate grants have been awarded to Idaho State University’s Nuclear Engineering department worth more than $700,000 in total.
The grants are provided by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Nuclear Energy University Programs, (NEUP).
Nuclear researchers will utilize new grant funding to create accurate reactor physics benchmarks that will assist in safe operation of nuclear reactors.
Additionally, these grants provide ISU nuclear researchers the opportunity to evaluate nuclear fuel materials and how they perform over time.
By testing innovative ways to image nuclear fuel behavior, the life span and stability of these fuels can be improved.
“[ISU is] participating in a project to improve diagnostics in nuclear fuel testing, and we have a responsibility in developing the image techniques for this,” said Nuclear Engineering Professor George Imel.
“For imaging and fuel behavior in accident conditions, in the past you could say we had [the level of] an X-ray. We know to improve the X-ray we could go to a CT scan, computerized tomography. But that’s really just an incremental technology change. We know we could do that. What we want to try to do is get to the equivalent of an MRI. The [level of an] MRI is a whole different way of looking at the imaging,” he added.
Imel has received $225,000 which is a portion of a $3 million Integrated Research Project (IRP) Grant offered to the University of Wisconsin and collaborators.
Associate Nuclear Engineering Professor Chad Pope will be receiving nearly $500,000 in the form of two separate grants.
A $400,000 benchmark grant was provided to fund research conducted by Pope and associates to establish accurate reactor standards to be included in the benchmark handbook.
“The benchmark program is an international handbook that’s assembled to identify all of these key reactor experiments, and they have a very strict set of protocols that have to be followed to define a benchmark,” said Pope.
“Once it goes into the handbook reactor designers from around the world use the handbook for code development so if I don’t get the same answers that the benchmark experiment got I know my code has a problem,” he added.
This process allows for more confidence when it comes to future reactor designs, making them safer and more efficient.
“We are always trying to advance the designs for better, cheaper, safer nuclear power plants. This benchmarking process helps in that,” said Pope.
Pope also received a grant worth $91,000 to improve the nuclear laboratory located in the basement of the Lillibridge Engineering Building.
This infrastructure grant allows for the upgrade to existing lab equipment necessary for the required research of the department.
“We have a one year period to procure a list of equipment that we asked for our laboratory. It will be used to modernize the laboratory so we can attract high quality students,” said Pope.
The research to be completed by Pope as well as Imel will be conducted with the assistance of graduate students of the university.
In order for graduate students to pursue a level of higher education it is important the university can offer financial support to these students.
This support comes in the forms of grants.
“These grants are absolutely critical to our graduate program. We could not survive without the grants. There is no state funding to do that research that a graduate student needs to do,” said Imel.
The new nuclear science grants provided to ISU will benefit the university, faculty and the student body.
These grants look to propel the university into top tier status in regard to nuclear materials.
To schedule a tour and visit the on-campus nuclear reactor, send an email to Adam Mallicoat, Reactor Supervisor, at ude.usinull@madallam.
