Financial thoughts

The University of Wisconsin-Madison was awarded five federal grants worth $3,682,798 to work on projects to advance nuclear energy research and development, the U.S. Department of Energy announced Thursday.

U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu announced the selection of 42 university-led projects for awards totaling $38 million to be funded over three to four years through the department’s Nuclear Energy University Program.

“We are taking action to restart the nuclear industry as part of a broad approach to cut carbon pollution and create new clean energy jobs,” said Chu in a press release.

UW-Madison’s five awards include one grant of $616,073 to research and demonstrate technologies that will enable the safe and cost-effective management of the used fuel, focused on developing novel technology options to improve used fuel storage, recycling and disposal.

Three grants totaling $2.5 million were awarded to UW for research and development of the next generation of nuclear reactors that will produce more energy and create less waste with a focus on developing new reactor technologies with higher safety, economic and sustainability performance.

The final grant of $538,032 is for research focusing on creative, innovative and “blue sky” research in the fields of nuclear science and engineering.

“These projects will help us develop the nuclear technologies of the future and move our domestic nuclear industry forward,” Chu said.

Actual project funding will be established during the contract negotiation phase of the projects.

A list of selected projects can be found at: http://nuclear.gov/pdfFiles/NEUP_FY10_RDAwards.pdf.

Additional information on the Nuclear Energy University Program is available at www.ne-up.org.

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