Research Reactor Funds

Four university-led consortia have been awarded a total of $5.5 million in the first year of five-year grants intended to improve campus nuclear research reactors and related educational programs and to counter a predicted shortage of nuclear engineers and scientists. The funding, from the Department of Energy’s new Innovations in Nuclear Infrastructure and Education program, which commenced in July, is the most significant infusion of federal money to the nation’s aging research reactors since they were built, many of them 40 or more years ago (see Physics Today, April 2002, page 23 ).

The INIE awardees are consortia led by MIT; Pennsylvania State University; Oregon State University and the University of California at Davis; and Texas A&M University. DOE national laboratories are participating in several of the consortia. Three additional consortia are on a waiting list in case DOE scrapes together more money for the INIE program.