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The Department of Energy Awards NU a nuclear energy innovation investment

websitereported.com

The University of Nebraska was recently awarded $980,000 from the U.S. Energy Department as part of its new nuclear energy innovation investments program. 

The University of Nebraska received is leading a three year project with its partners MIT and Texas A&M to engineer a composite of glass and steel for nuclear reactors. 

Sue Lesica, Materials Engineer in the Office of Nuclear Energy, says the group will be working to prove through their research that this material will have the strength of steel while having the irradiation resistance of the glass.  She says the work is being done under through the Nuclear Energy Enabling Technologies program.

"There are several different research areas under that program and one of those is reactor materials and so the goal of the materials research is to deliver transformational capabilities in reactor materials which are subjected to very extreme environments, including irradiation, high temperatures, high stress, over a very long period of time.”

Lesica says the University of Nebraska’s proposal was one of 9 to be awarded funds out of a total of 65 applicants.