WPI wins $1.1M to boost nuclear research

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By Rick Saia

Worcester Polytechnic Institute has been awarded $1.1 million in federal grants to help revitalize the nuclear power industry, the school announced Monday.

The money, from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is part of $15 million in grants the agency has awarded to 37 colleges and universities. The money for WPI will be used for scholarships, fellowships and faculty development through its nuclear education program.

"WPI will use the use the majority of this funding to support the national objective for reinvigorating the nuclear power industry," said Germano S. Iannacchione, head of WPI’s physics department, which houses the nuclear science and engineering (NSE) program, which will oversee the money. “The other funding will go towards research into improved radiation therapy for cancer patients, as well as improving medical imaging technologies.”

WPI received the following awards:

$367,000 to support faculty development for—and research in— the program;
$400,000 to fund two graduate students per year for four years;
$196,000 to fund eight undergraduate student scholarships per year for two years; and
$198,000 to fund the development of new curricula for the undergraduate and graduate components of the NSE program.

With the decline in the domestic nuclear power industry, WPI's original nuclear engineering program was discontinued more than a decade ago and the university's 10-kilowatt research reactor has been decommissioned, the school said in a statement. However, with the aging of the nuclear engineering workforce and renewed interest in nuclear energy as a greener alternative to electricity generated with fossil fuels, the demand for graduates prepared to work in various facets of the nuclear industry is growing, the school said.

"There is both a domestic and worldwide need for highly qualified nuclear professionals to keep nuclear power plants and nuclear materials safe and secure," NRC Chairman Allison Macfarlane said in a statement announcing the awards. The grant programs "offer college and university recipients an opportunity to encourage their best and brightest to pursue careers in nuclear engineering, health physics, radiochemistry, and related sciences."

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