Introduction and History
The Nuclear Science and Security Consortium (NSSC) is a UC Berkeley-led consortium supported by the Department of Energy (DOE)’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). With more than 150 professors, researchers, and students at ten major universities and six national laboratories, the NSSC contributes to research in fundamental and applied nuclear science and engineering while training the next generation of nuclear security experts.
In 2011, the NNSA first awarded the NSSC $25 million to establish a five-year program to develop the nation’s intellectual capital in nuclear science and engineering with Prof. Jasmina Vujic at UC Berkeley at the helm. An additional $1.5M was awarded in 2011 for scholarships, research projects, and summer fellowships in collaboration with minority-serving institutions. Partner universities in the first phase of the consortium included UC Berkeley, Michigan State University, UC Irvine, UC Davis, Washington University in St. Louis, the Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation at UC San Diego, and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Partner national laboratories included Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), and Sandia National Laboratories (SNL).
In 2016, the NSSC successfully competed for an additional five years of support under the leadership of Prof. Jasmina Vujic. Partner universities in the second phase of the consortium included UC Berkeley (lead), Michigan State University (MSU), UC Davis, George Washington University (GWU), Texas A&M University (TAMU), the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK), and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV). Partner national laboratories included LBNL, LANL, LLNL, SNL, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL).
In 2021, Prof. Jasmina Vujic at UC Berkeley led the NSSC to a third five-year performance period, with a team of eleven universities and five national labs. This included: UC Berkeley (lead), the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT), GWU, MSU, North Carolina State University (NCSU), TAMU, UC Davis, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), UNLV, the University of New Mexico (UNM), and UTK, in cooperation with: LANL, LBNL, LLNL, SNL, and ORNL. The R&D agenda was organized around two main themes: fundamental nuclear sciences and applied nuclear science and engineering, along with educational programming in nuclear science, technology, and policy.
Today, the NSSC is in its fourth performance period (2026-2031), now led by Prof. Bethany Goldblum at UC Berkeley. The consortium brings together nuclear scientists and engineers from ten universities and six national labs: UC Berkeley (lead), AFIT, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), MSU, NCSU, UIUC, UNLV, UTK, the University of Washington, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison; in cooperation with six U.S. DOE National Laboratory partners: LANL, LBNL, LLNL, SNL, ORNL, and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). The R&D agenda includes fundamental and applied nuclear science and engineering in collaboration with national laboratories in the fields of low-energy nuclear physics, nuclear chemistry and chemical engineering, nuclear materials science, nuclear engineering, and radiation detection sciences. There are two crosscutting activities in computing and optimization for nuclear applications, and education in nuclear science, technology, and policy.
Mission
The mission of the NSSC is to train the next generation of nuclear scientists and engineers while engaging in research and development spanning basic aspects of new technology and methods to programmatic work directly supporting the nuclear security and nonproliferation mission.
Partner Institutions
