The University of Wyoming (UW) recently announced plans to create a nuclear research core facility, with help from a $300,000 grant from the US Department of Energy. The facility is also receiving $600,000 in funding from UW’s School of Energy Resources. Dr. Caleb Hill, the co-director of the University’s Nuclear Energy Research Center, will be overseeing the project’s completion.
The core facility will be a dedicated space for working with radioactive materials, which Hill said will help ensure safety while conducting nuclear research. The lab will be equipped with radioactive monitors, proper storage, and other equipment to ensure that hazardous materials are not being taken out of the space.
The facility will be open to use by faculty from across UW. According to Hill, initial research could focus on the nuclear fuel cycle, materials relevant to nuclear reactor construction, and other areas.
Students with nuclear interests will also be able to utilize the lab space for both research and for coursework in relevant classes.
Wyoming’s nuclear industry is also entering a period of growth, with the announcement of TerraPower’s plans to build a nuclear power plant in Kemmerer. Hill hopes that this development will work in tandem with the lab’s establishment, which will give students the skills necessary to enter the growing industry.
“The main thing that UW has been missing in these areas is established curricula to bring students up to speed on the nuclear sector,” he said. “So we're really trying to establish that so students can have the needed background that they can take to go out and engage with that industry once they graduate.”
UW has also received funding from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to hire more faculty with nuclear-related interests. Hill said the creation of a dedicated research space and the addition of new faculty will help bolster the university’s nuclear program back to what it used to be.
“We used to have a research reactor on campus. We used to have dedicated nuclear engineering and radiochemistry programs, but that had fallen to the wayside,” he said. “But there's no reason that we can’t get to a place where nuclear science, engineering, policy concerns, etc. have a prominent place here.”
The facility is slated to be up and running within a year.
