Archive for 2021

Article by Kara Manke

A five-year, $25 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Science Administration (NNSA) will keep UC Berkeley at the helm of a multi-institution consortium dedicated to advancing research in nuclear science and security and training the next generation of nuclear scientists and engineers.

This is the third time the NNSA has tapped Berkeley to lead the government’s Nuclear Science and Security Consortium (NSSC), which brings together nuclear scientists and engineers from 11 universities and five national labs.

“In the face of the pandemic, nuclear security challenges may seem remote, but the risks posed by nuclear proliferation and radiological terrorism remain extremely relevant,” said NSSC Executive Director Bethany Goldblum. “Along with our national laboratory partners, our consortium plays an important role in advancing capabilities to prevent the spread of nuclear materials and related technologies, as well as in the basic science underlying these advancements.”

Since its founding in 2011, the NSSC has contributed to fundamental nuclear science research, as well as to the development of new technologies in radiation detection and nuclear engineering.

Through fellowships, scholarships and a broad collection of research internships, workshops and summer schools, it has supported and trained more than 500 undergraduate and graduate students, postdocs, specialists and faculty. It has placed nearly half of these students and postdocs in positions at Department of Energy national laboratories or other government agencies.

“A strong pipeline of new technical talent for our laboratories is critical to our mission of supporting U.S. national security objectives in reducing global nuclear security threats,” said Kasia Mendelsohn, acting deputy administrator for defense nuclear nonproliferation, in an NNSA press release describing the award.  “Over the past decade, nearly 500 degrees have been awarded through our three university consortia, resulting in more than 140 new career placements at the national laboratories.  I am confident the Berkeley-led team will build on their past success and continue to produce an effective return on agency investment.”

The consortium has also had success attracting women to the field and placing them in STEM careers. More than 30% of NSSC fellows are women, and many women, including Goldblum and NSSC Director Jasmina Vujic, play leadership roles in the organization.

The new iteration of the consortium will build upon its current work, while also extending into new research focus areas, including nuclear chemical engineering, artificial intelligence and machine learning. It also aims to expand its junior faculty, with an eye on diversity and inclusion.

“UC Berkeley brings expertise in many of the research areas relevant for the nuclear security professional,” Goldblum said. “This, as well as UC Berkeley’s proximity to the national laboratories, makes us a natural partner for establishing and fostering collaborative research relationships”Read the full press release on the NNSA website

Austin Mullen, NSSC Graduate Fellow, and Deputy Director of the Nuclear Policy Working Group has been named a 2021 PONI Nuclear Scholar.

This highly competitive program, “aims to provide top graduate students and young professionals from around the country with a unique venue to interact, dialogue and gain in-depth knowledge on nuclear weapons.”

Former PONI Nuclear Scholars include Dr. Bethany Goldblum, NSSC Executive Director, and former NSSC Fellow, Dr. Andrew Reddie, now at SNL.

Article found here: https://www.energy.gov/nnsa/articles/nnsa-renews-university-consortium-grant-research-and-development-nuclear-science

$25 million will go to group led by University of California, Berkeley

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (DOE/NNSA) announced a $25 million grant to a University of California, Berkeley-led consortium of 11 universities for research and development (R&D) in nuclear science, engineering, and security.  This long-term investment will support the consortium at $5 million per year for five years. The grant, awarded for the third time to a Berkeley-led consortium, followed the announcement of a funding opportunity issued in April 2020.

The mission of the Nuclear Science and Security Consortium is to train the next generation of nuclear scientists and engineers, while engaging in R&D spanning basic aspects of new technology and methods to programmatic work directly supporting the NNSA’s nuclear security and nonproliferation missions.

“A strong pipeline of new technical talent for our laboratories is critical to our mission of supporting U.S. national security objectives in reducing global nuclear security threats,” said Kasia Mendelsohn, Acting Deputy Administrator for Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation at NNSA.  “Over the past decade, nearly 500 degrees have been awarded through our three university consortia, resulting in more than 140 new career placements at the national laboratories.  I am confident the Berkeley-led team will build on their past success and continue to produce an effective return on agency investment.”

The other consortium member institutions include:

• Air Force Institute of Technology
• George Washington University
• Michigan State University
• North Carolina State University
• Texas A&M University
• University of California, Davis
• University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
• University of Nevada, Las Vegas
• University of New Mexico
• University of Tennessee, Knoxville

These 11 universities partner with five national laboratories: Los Alamos National Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and Sandia National Laboratories.

The consortium will carry out R&D in five research focus areas: nuclear physics and nuclear data; radiochemistry and nuclear chemistry; nuclear material science; radiation detection; nuclear chemical engineering and nuclear engineering.  Linking these research areas are two crosscutting efforts: computing and optimization in nuclear applications; and education in nuclear science, technology, and policy.

This structure provides a clear pathway for collaborative R&D with DOE’s National Laboratories supporting a range of research areas in both fundamental and applied nuclear science and engineering.  It also facilitates the exchange of ideas and technologies between consortium partners and develops trained personnel across a range of disciplines.

The direct outcome of this program is the development of professionals with skill-sets to support foundational disciplines of nuclear physics, science and engineering, radiation detection, nuclear material science, radiochemistry, and mass spectrometry.

These professionals will have career opportunities as scientists, engineers, technicians, operational personnel, and intelligence professionals, among others.  In those positions, the individuals will have the opportunity to contribute to nuclear nonproliferation, nuclear arms control, nuclear incident response, nuclear intelligence activities, nuclear energy, and other nuclear-related fields.  As they do so, these professionals are expected to benefit academia, private industry, and several U.S. government agencies, including the Departments of Energy, State, Defense, Homeland Security, and Justice, as well as the Intelligence Community.