Dr. Raymond Cao, Nuclear Engineering Professor & Nuclear Reactor Lab Director at the Ohio State University, who is also the lead of Thrust Area 3 of ETI consortium, has been appointed by the Office of Ohio Governor Mike DeWine to the Ohio Nuclear Development Authority. The authority is responsible for the development of advanced nuclear reactor commercialization, isotope production and nuclear waste reduction.
The Consortium for Enabling Technologies and Innovation (ETI) 2.0, a consortium of 12 universities and 12 national labs, which is led by Georgia Tech and directed by Prof. Anna Erickson, wins a $25 million U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) award to support the basic science that underlies the nuclear security and nonproliferation missions.
ETI2.0 links basic university research with applied laboratory research to advance technical capabilities in support of nuclear security and nonproliferation missions of NNSA, enabling an effective pipeline of talented next-generation experts to establish careers at DOE national laboratories. “The consortium is critical to the future of NNSA’s nuclear security and nonproliferation research and development work,” said Jeff Chamberlin, head of NNSA’s nonproliferation efforts. “Once they develop a concept, the national laboratories can iterate and test its capabilities until it’s ready for the private sector to adopt.” (check here more details)
ETI2.0 will leverage the strong foundation of interdisciplinary, collaboration-driven technological innovation developed in the ETI Consortium funded in 2019. The technical mission of the ETI 2.0 team is to advance technologies across three core disciplines: data science and digital technologies in nuclear security and nonproliferation, precision environmental analysis for enhanced nuclear nonproliferation vigilance and emergency response, and emerging technologies. They will be advanced by research projects in novel radiation detectors, algorithms, testbeds, and digital twins.
While half the original collaborators remain, ETI2.0 sought new institutional partners for their research expertise, including Abilene Christian University, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Stony Brook University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and Virginia Commonwealth University. Other university collaborators include the Colorado School of Mines, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Ohio State University, Texas A&M University, the University of Texas at Austin, and the University of Wisconsin–Madison. National lab partners are the Argonne National Laboratory, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Idaho National Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Nevada National Security Site, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories, and Savannah River National Laboratory. (more details are available here)
The ETI members showcased the research progress by delivering impressive 16 oral presentations and 25 poster presentations at the annual University Program Review (UPR) meeting that was held by NNSA’s Office of Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation Research and Development (DNN R&D) from June 4 – 6, 2024 at the Zachry Engineering Education Complex at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. Over 260 participants representing university partners, national laboratories, and the government joined together at this event.
The UPR meeting is an unclassified venue for sponsors to review the accomplishments of grantees; stakeholders within the community to engage sponsored researchers; a forum to stimulate collaboration, technology transfer, and integration; and a venue where students and early career scientists can interact with their peers in a rigorous, yet collegial, environment.
All the students’ presentations are very impressive. This year’s UPR Student Award winners for our ETI consortium are:
Great efforts and contributions from the ETI members to make the UPR2024 successful! Special thanks to Dr. Pavel Tsvetkov and the TAMU team for hosting and supporting this meeting!
Prof. Anna Erickson, the director of ETI consortium, was awarded the E. Gail de Planque Medal at the 2023 ANS Winter Conference. The award recognizes exemplary accomplishments by a woman in the fields of nuclear science and engineering. This award is intended to recognize outstanding lifetime or singular achievements by women that have resulted in tangible benefits to the field of nuclear science and engineering. The award is to be given to a woman whose work in the field of engineering, education, research or public policy meets one or more of the following criteria:
On March 7, 2024, DOE/NNSA Office of Nonproliferation and Arms Control hosted a Women in Strategic Trade (WiST) U.S. Roundtable at the JW Marriott Hotel Washington, DC (1331 Pennsylvania Avenue NW) for early career professionals interested in pursuing a career in strategic trade controls. The event features keynote speakers from leaders in the U.S. strategic trade control interagency, a roundtable panel on careers in strategic trade controls and agencies’ role in the U.S. export control system, and a facilitated networking session. The ETI Consortium was invited to attend the event. As ETI students, Natalie Cannon and Mackenzie Duce from Georgia Institute of Technology joined this event.
The mission of the WiST Initiative is to promote the advancement, leadership, and meaningful participation of women in all areas of strategic trade controls. The WiST Initiative is organized by three (3) guiding pillars: 1) Empowerment, 2) Capacity Building, and 3) Community Engagement. The three (3) pillars represent WiST overarching goals and activities that contribute to achieving its strategic objectives.
