Grant Won For Nuclear Defense

BY Angelica Dongallo

Contributing Writer

Friday, September 7, 2007

UC Berkeley researchers will be working on a new project to improve nuclear defense technology, using a $1.4 million grant the campus received from the Department of Homeland Security and the National Science Foundation last month.

The grant, called the Academic Research Initiative, is one of the first academic initiatives by the department’s Domestic Nuclear Detection Office aimed at eliminating the threat of nuclear terrorism, said Nick Prins, deputy assistant director for the office.

The UC Berkeley interdisciplinary group. led by nuclear engineering professor Edward Morse. could potentially renew the grant for up to $7.1 million over five years.

“We’ve had a long tradition of doing our part for the government when we have the right people and the right expertise,” Morse said, citing his team of researchers based in different fields.

UC Berkeley, along with Texas A&M University, received the most funding from the initiative, based on “intellectual merit” and “broader impact” components, said Bruce Hamilton, program director for the National Science Foundation.

“(Out of 133 proposals), it was one set of good ideas, and the combination of those good ideas plus the integration of students in the research plan was a big plus,” Hamilton said.

Morse’s team includes professor Eric Norman and associate professor of nuclear engineering Brian Wirth, business and industrial engineering and operations research professor Dorit Hochbaum and physics professor James Siegrist.

Beside developing nuclear detection technology that will enhance homeland security, part of the grant will be used for scholarships and fellowships to recruit the next generation of nuclear engineers, Morse said.

“That’s our product here, students,” he said. “We try to do smart things ourselves, but the students are probably a big part of it.”

This is the largest grant the department of nuclear engineering has received in at least 20 years to support the growing field of nuclear technology and security, said the chair of the department, professor Jasmina Vujic.

One of the first goals of the project is to visit the Port of Oakland to examine the problems with inspecting cargo containers, less than one percent of which are inspected, Vujic said.

Another plan proposed jointly by nuclear engineering associate professor-in-residence Kai Vetter and a medical imaging expert at UC San Francisco won a two-year, $2 million grant from the initiative.

Vujic said she hopes the grants will highlight the need for more nuclear engineering research funding from the campus administration.

“National security will not go away, the need for nuclear energy will not go away, so the campus needs to recognize that,” Vujic said.