DoE awards nuclear fuel cycle grants

Important initiatives do not have to be big and expensive. Here is an example: The department of Eenergy (DoE) will award up to $340,000 in fellowships to eight graduate student fellows to advance research in the nuclear fuel cycle. The fellowships are valued at up to $42,500 per student over two academic years and are part of the Advanced Fuel Cycle Initiative (AFCI) — a program within DoE’s Office of Nuclear Energy which aims to increase research into closing the nuclear fuel cycle and recycling components of used nuclear reactor fuel.

AFCI fellowships are awarded annually to students planning to pursue research in technical areas related to the separation of nuclear waste components, the fabrication of these components into recycled fuel, and the preparation of new waste forms with increased long-term stability. Selected AFCI fellows are full-time students who have an interest in advanced fuel cycle research and who are pursuing master’s degrees in nuclear engineering, applied physics, or other fields of science and engineering relevant to the GNEP or AFCI missions. This summer, the new AFCI fellows will visit DoE HQ in Washington, D.C. to become better acquainted with the AFCI program, and many will have summer jobs at DoE national laboratories before entering graduate school in the fall.

The AFCI new fellows:

* Brett Dooies, University of Florida, nuclear engineering

* Eddie “Trey” Holik, Texas A&M University, applied physics

* Brendan Kochunas, University of California-Berkeley, reactor physics

* Kyle Oliver, University of Wisconsin, nuclear engineering

* Kathryn Wright, Texas A&M University, nuclear engineering

* Shen Zang, North Carolina State University, nuclear engineering

* Shannon Yee, Ohio State University, nuclear engineering

* Shadi Ghrayeb, Graduate University Currently Undecided, nuclear science and engineering