The beginning of October brought with it UTSA’s selection as the lead institution for the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Nuclear Energy’s most recent multimillion-dollar project. The award is set to stimulate nuclear energy research at UTSA and provide professional training to prepare undergraduate and graduate students for careers in nuclear energy science. Researchers at the university will collaborate with the University of Texas at El Paso and the Idaho National Laboratory to investigate fission product (FP) behavior in advanced reactor fuels. The project is one of three Integrated Research Projects awarded by the DOE for fiscal year 2024, and as the lead institution, UTSA is designated to receive over half of the $3 million award.
“This research will contribute to the knowledge base and understanding of novel nuclear fuels proposed to power advanced systems that will bring us all one step closer to achieving our clean energy and climate goals, while also advancing space exploration beyond our planet,” said Elizabeth Sooby, principal investigator on the project and associate professor in the UTSA Department of Physics and Astronomy. The new project comes as UTSA has steadily increased its presence in the nuclear research field.
Earlier this year, UTSA announced its participation in one of two new DOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) consortia committed to nuclear security and nonproliferation.
The DOE says the consortia were established to facilitate collaboration between universities and laboratory researchers to advance science and technology that furthers NNSA’s nuclear security and nonproliferation missions. The hands-on approach and professional training also have the goal of “enabling an effective pipeline of talented next-generation experts to establish careers at DOE national laboratories.” Each consortium will receive up to $5 million per year for five years to further these objectives.
The new research project is titled “Experimental and Computational assessment of thermodynamic stability of fission products in advanced reactor fuels.” With combined efforts from other academic institutions, this project will utilize experimental and computational methods to investigate FPs and their influence on the thermal and mechanical properties of advanced reactor fuels, specifically uranium mononitride.
Fission products are particles that remain after nuclear fission, the process that occurs when a nucleus is split into two smaller nuclei to generate energy. Uranium mononitride is a chemical compound that refers to an oxidation state where nitrogen binds to the fissile fuel-uranium leading to high uranium density as well as high thermal conductivity, resulting in more efficient power production and heat transfer.
“This discovery will propel us forward by granting greater access to cleaner and more efficient forms of nuclear energy that will help us achieve our current climate and space propulsion goals,” Sooby added.
Nuclear power provides one-fifth of America’s electricity and is the nation’s largest domestic source of clean energy according to the DOE. Due to the massive potential energy and conductivity, uranium nitrides are seen by the nuclear materials community as exciting candidate fuels for advanced nuclear systems, namely civilian power systems and even space nuclear propulsion.
“Nuclear reactor developers all over the U.S. are proposing designs for safer, more economical, proliferation resistance systems,” Sooby added. “Many of these new technologies necessitate the use of nuclear fuels which are not yet on the market. Further, with the push to go to Mars, there’s a great deal of attention being placed on space nuclear power systems to both power habitats and space craft.”
With two operational nuclear power plants in Texas, UTSA’s involvement in advancing clean energy technology “places us on the leading edge of advancements in this area” while simultaneously engaging students in cutting-edge research.
“We will combine our world-class capabilities with experimental expertise and experience in synthesis and testing of uranium compounds to advance the world’s understanding of fission product mobility in non-oxide fuels,” Sooby said. “This discovery will propel us forward by granting greater access to cleaner and more efficient forms of nuclear energy that will help us achieve our current climate and space propulsion goals.”
Sooby’s research team includes UTSA faculty members Xochitl Lopez-Lozano and Patrick Warren, along with collaborators from UT El Paso and Idaho National Laboratory. The project will also recruit two UTSA graduate students and more than 15 undergraduate students to gain hands-on experience and assist with the project.
