The University of Michigan got a $25 million grant to lead a team of 13 universities and eight national laboratories in conducting research and development for nuclear arms control verification technologies, including nuclear safeguards effectiveness.
The investment will pump $5 million per year into the consortium for five years to support the research and development.
The National Nuclear Security Administration – the group funding the project – said that control verification technologies provide tools to support and improve the ability of the U.S. government. They also monitor for compliance with nuclear arms control commitments and treaty obligations.
Nuclear safeguards support the International Atomic Energy Agency’s mission to monitor the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and the commitments of signatory countries to refrain from developing new nuclear weapons.
Today, 190 countries participate in the international Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, which promises that countries with nuclear weapons will disarm and countries without them will not acquire them.
The research will aid the IAEA in monitoring nuclear materials. Additional work under the consortium will include efforts in geophysical modeling, which will allow for the detection of underground nuclear testing sites.
“Developing the R&D expertise of tomorrow can take years to cultivate,” NNSA deputy administrator Anne Harrington said in a release.
“But we are linking national laboratories and academia by funding the next generation of researchers to perform complex research and gain an understanding of technical challenges in areas of major importance for the nuclear nonproliferation mission that can only be garnered first-hand at the national laboratories.”
In addition to the U-M, the consortium includes other members such as the MIT, Princeton, and Columbia, and research labs including the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory.
Source: Mlive.com