GOLDEN, Colo., Sept. 4, 2014 – The Department of Energy (DOE) recently announced awards totaling more than $67 million to U.S. universities including Colorado School of Mines, national laboratories, and industry for research that has the potential to help strengthen the nation's energy security and reduce harmful greenhouse gas emissions.

Through the Nuclear Energy University Programs (NEUP), the DOE is awarding approximately $30 million for 44 university-led nuclear energy research and development projects, approximately $20 million for five Integrated Research Projects and 20 infrastructure support awards.

DOE is also awarding more than $11 million to support 12 nuclear energy research and development projects through the Nuclear Energy Enabling Technologies (NEET) program. Additionally, NEET is awarding two grants totaling more than $1 million to support infrastructure improvements at DOE national laboratories to further reactor and instrumentation research. 

 

Mines projects:
Infrastructure award, $215,372: Led by Jeff King, associate professor, Mines Metallurgical and Materials Engineering Department and interim program director of the Mines Nuclear Science and Engineering Program

The project will provide the Mines Nuclear Science Laboratory with a pneumatic sample transfer system to transfer irradiated samples from the US Geologic Survey TRIGA Reactor to the Mines laboratories at the Denver Federal Center.  The project will also provide remotely accessible experimental stations for work with radioactive materials.

R&D award, $800,000: Led by Jenifer Braley, assistant professor, Mines Chemistry and Geochemistry Department

The significant storage timelines associated with managing used nuclear fuel (>100,000 years) significantly limit its attractiveness as a largely carbon-neutral source of energy.  One way of decreasing these timelines is to “transmute” the actinides (U-Am) to lighter elements by fissioning them in nuclear reactors.  Before these elements can be placed in a reactor, they must be selectively recovered from the mess of elements present in used nuclear fuel.  Researchers will develop and exploit the fundamental chemistry of Americium to enable an industrially viable means to co-recover the  U-Am actinide elements from used nuclear fuel. The results would be a significant step forward in the development of aqueous separations approaches designed to recover the U-Am actinides based on the availability of the hexavalent oxidation state.

During the 2014 calendar year, Braley has led projects receiving $1.6 million in research support to examine fundamental and applied actinide science from the DOE.

 

Contact:
Karen Gilbert, Director of Public Relations, Colorado School of Mines / 303-273-3541 / kgilbert@mines.edu
Kathleen Morton, Communications Coordinator, Colorado School of Mines / 303-273-3088 / kmorton@mines.edu