In April, the Department of Energy awarded the University of Michigan $3.6 million to research the development and effects of nuclear energy. The money will be used to research monitoring and cooling systems, as well as radiation damage to reactors. In addition, the money will be utilized to bring Native American voices into the conversation surrounding nuclear energy. This grant is a part of a larger national effort toward the development of nuclear energy and other clean energy sources.
Currently, nuclear energy constitutes approximately one-fifth of energy produced in the U.S. and involves harnessing the energy created by splitting atoms. It is considered a clean energy source because it does not release carbon into the atmosphere. In an email to The Michigan Daily, Engineering senior Julia Marshall, who is majoring in nuclear engineering, spoke to the major benefits of nuclear energy compared to other major energy sources in the U.S.
“There are three main positive aspects of nuclear energy,” Marshall wrote. “One, it can provide a lot of energy, and advanced nuclear designs are improving the capability to meet varied demand in different communities … Two, it provides clean energy, with controllable waste that scientists have spent decades studying the safe disposal of, whereas when carbon-producing sources emit pollution it’s much less well-controlled in the environment. And three, it operates incredibly safely.”
One of the components of nuclear energy that the University will be funding is the development of the optical sensors used to monitor reactors. In an interview with The Daily, project lead Igor Jovanovic, director of the Neutron Science Laboratory and the Applied Nuclear Science Instrumentation Laboratory, expressed the areas of need within reactor monitoring that this project will address.
“There is a need to develop new types of sensors, which will operate in more severe conditions at higher temperatures in higher radiation environments,” Jovanovic said. “We don’t really understand very well how the sensors that are available today and also the ones that have been proposed and demonstrated in the laboratory will perform in such environments. So this project will investigate how the materials used in those sensors perform.”
Another component funded by the grant is research on a different type of cooling system for nuclear reactors. The money will be used to study how helium-gas-cooled fast modular reactors work to cool the system in the event the regular cooling system malfunctions. FMRs are much more fuel-efficient and temperature-resistant than traditional cooling systems, but have not been tested thoroughly.
Additionally, a portion of the grant will be allocated to expanding the Michigan Ion Beam Laboratory. The lab can mimic much of the radiation damage caused within nuclear reactors, and the additional funding will be used to upgrade the facility to allow it to apply to a broader range of reactor types and scenarios.
The final component the grant will fund is the inclusion of Native American voices in the development and use of nuclear energy. Native American tribes have long been exploited on the basis of nuclear development, in large part due to land degradation or seizure for the mining of uranium — the most common fuel used in nuclear fission. Russell Jim, head of the Yakama Nation’s Environmental Restoration and Waste Management Program, participated in the Voices of the Manhattan Project, in which he recounted the history of his people and their displacement from their land due to the Manhattan Project.
“The area had the abundant water — cold water, clean water — that they needed to cool their reactors,” Jim said. “The area was an isolated wasteland, and the people were expendable. And that was in writing. And therefore the Manhattan Project was justified here, and everyone was moved out, including the Yakama Nation people.”
The history of nuclear energy is a complicated one, and many have long questioned its safety. This is in large part due to nuclear disasters like Chernobyl, their association with nuclear weapons and the disposal of reactor waste. Marshall expressed what she viewed as the biggest disadvantages of nuclear energy in comparison to other forms of energy production.
“Some of the main flaws I see are the complexity and timeline to build new reactors, as the US has not built many in the past several decades … and the issue of public perception and education,” Marshall wrote. “I think the nuclear industry has not spent enough time validating the concerns of the public and considering them, but many young nuclear engineers are very passionate about that specific aspect of nuclear energy!”
Daily Staff Reporter Lyra Wilder can be reached at lyrawild@umich.edu.
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