COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Texas A&M University researchers in College Station will get $5.4 million in federal Energy Department money to test whether spent nuclear fuel, long treated as a waste problem, can be turned back into reactor fuel.
Deputy Energy Secretary James P. Danly came to campus Thursday to announce the award to the Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station, known as TEES. He met with university leaders and spent the afternoon touring energy research facilities.
The money comes through ARPA-E, the agency’s arm for early-stage, high-risk energy ideas that are not yet ready for private investors. It is one piece of about $50 million in grants handed out nationwide the same day, and Texas A&M was the lone Texas university chosen.
Dr. Lin Shao, a professor of nuclear engineering, heads the work, which centers on a thorium molten salt reactor. Working with him are TEES researchers, scientists at Savannah River National Laboratory and the company Natura Resources.
Its two aims are to shrink the long-term burden of used fuel and its long-lived radioactive parts and to help build advanced reactors that can supply steady power. Danly said recycled fuel still holds 98% of its useful value and should be seen as an asset rather than a liability.
Dr. Robert H. Bishop, the engineering dean and TEES director, said the thorium-based approach takes a different path than other fuel recycling research. University President Dr. Susan Ballabina said the award shows the role universities play in energy work that benefits Texas and the nation.
Filed under: College Station TX Education News
