ANN ARBOR, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – The Department of Energy has awarded $7.5 million to University of Michigan Engineering researchers develop technology that can speed up the advanced nuclear reactor licensing process.

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Before a reactor can be approved, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission requires extensive data about how reactors operate and degrade over time. Finding an appropriate test reactor and collecting the necessary data can be slow and costly.

To simplify the process, U-M researchers are working to develop a tool that can provide the necessary data in a matter of days rather than years. Researchers will shoot atomic nuclei at reactor material, a technique known as ion irradiation, to gather predictive data demonstrating how well core reactor materials can withstand years of wear.

“Unfortunately, the scarcity of accessible reactors, the cost of irradiations, and the time to reach the damage levels needed—up to 20 years—means that companies designing advances reactors cannot rely on test reactors,” said Gary Was, professor emeritus of nuclear engineering and radiological sciences and leader of the new project. “Ion irradiation is not only faster, in terms of days versus years, and cheaper—thousands versus millions of dollars—[but] it also does not require special handling or disposal issues, and advances in ion irradiation techniques and simulation and modeling have established the technique as a viable substitution for reactor irradiation.”

According to U of M, nuclear energy is positioned to play a critical role in the transition to a zero-emissions energy grid. As an adjacent project to the new research tool, U-M researchers will attempt to measure public opinion on the presence of nearby nuclear plants through a survey of New Mexico communities.

A 2023 Gallup survey showed that about 55% of Americans favor the use of nuclear energy as a source of electricity, while 44% opposed it.

“The successful placement of new energy facilities depends on understanding the perspectives and values of the local community and the sustained alignment of consent across many scales—local, regional, and national,” said Aditi Verma, who leads the New Mexico study. “There is, however, a lack of available data on public perspectives on such facilities at the local level, making it difficult for developers to anticipate community reactions or compare different options for siting.”

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Other UM projects supporting the development of nuclear energy include real-time impurity detection, which will improve current sensor technologies to detect and identify sources of potential corrosion and blockages; stress testing, which will provide a cost-effective method for seeing how reactor components change shape under stress; and new algorithms, which would be designed to work with potential future quantum computers.