Consortia link research at universities with the capabilities of U.S. National Laboratories to strengthen nuclear security

WASHINGTON – The Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (DOE/NNSA) announced grants totaling $50 million to two university consortia as part of a nonproliferation research and development effort.  The grants will support each consortium with $5 million per year for five years.

The consortia link basic research at universities with the capabilities of the U.S. National Laboratories to advance nuclear science and security goals.

“These grants will foster development of concepts and technologies that keep the United States at the forefront of nuclear monitoring and verification capabilities and allow us to nurture tomorrow’s nonproliferation experts,” said Dr. Brent K. Park, NNSA’s Deputy Administrator for Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation.  

The university consortia receiving the grants are:

• The Consortium for Enabling Technologies & Innovation, led by the University of Michigan, is a collection of 12 universities that work on developing and refining technologies supporting the nonproliferation mission to detect and characterize the production of nuclear materials.  The consortium will perform basic research in computer and engineering sciences for nonproliferation, advanced manufacturing for nonproliferation, and novel instrumentation for nuclear fuel-cycle monitoring.
• The Consortium for Monitoring, Technology & Verification, a partnership of 14 universities led by the Georgia Institute of Technology, seeks to improve U.S. capabilities to monitor the global nuclear fuel cycle.  Its nonproliferation focus will be nuclear and particle physics, signals and source terms, and the physics of monitoring nuclear materials.