The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, will lead 15 universities and eight national laboratories in the new Enabling Capabilities in Technology Consortium.
This new consortium was established for a $25 million cooperative agreement awarded by the US Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration Office of Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation. Scheduled to begin in March 2025, it includes funding for 35 graduate and 26 undergraduate researchers each year with the potential to support additional students.
“This new consortium funded by the Department of Energy will lead advances in global security, clean energy, and artificial intelligence that are especially critical to our nation and our world at this time,” said Jason Hayward, UCOR Fellow and professor of nuclear engineering at UT and the director of the consortium’s executive team. “In particular, our efforts will help produce the new knowledge and the diverse talented workforce necessary to enable the US and its allies to safely and securely triple nuclear power output throughout the world by 2050 and respond to emerging threats in space.”
The technology consortium research will span multiple fields including earth, environmental, atmospheric, and space science; radio and nuclear chemistry; and nuclear chemical engineering, advanced nuclear fuel systems engineering, and reactor systems engineering.