UW-Madison engineers part of consortium to support nuclear security and nonproliferation

Six University of Wisconsin-Madison faculty members are part of a consortium of 12 universities and 12 national labs to support the basic science that underlies the U.S. Department of Energy National Nuclear Security Administration’s nuclear security and nonproliferation missions.

The Consortium for Enabling Technologies and Innovation (ETI) 2.0 is led by Georgia Tech and funded by a $25 million award from NNSA.

The technical mission of the ETI 2.0 team is to advance technologies across three core disciplines: data science and digital technologies in nuclear security and nonproliferation, precision environmental analysis for enhanced nuclear nonproliferation vigilance and emergency response, and emerging technologies. They will be advanced by research projects in novel radiation detectors, algorithms, testbeds, and digital twins.

The UW-Madison faculty members in ETI 2.0 include Department of Nuclear Engineering and Engineering Physics professors Paul Wilson and Ben Lindley, who will focus on accountancy of tritium from fusion energy systems at engineering and enterprise scales.

Jennifer Choy, Dugald C. Jackson Assistant Professor in electrical and computer engineering, will contribute her expertise in quantum sensing technology to support nuclear nonproliferation missions.

Materials Science and Engineering Professor Dan Thoma will investigate signatures of advanced manufacturing techniques for materials/structures of significance for nuclear nonproliferation.

Andreas Velten, an associate professor in biostatistics and medical informatics and electrical and computer engineering, will research quantum measurements for novel radiation detection systems.

Philip Townsend, a professor of forest and wildlife ecology, will contribute his expertise in hyperspectral imaging of vegetation to detect the presence of radionuclides.

In addition to UW-Madison, university collaborators in ETI 2.0 include Abilene Christian University; Colorado School of Mines; the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; the Ohio State University; Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; Stony Brook University; Texas A&M University; University of Alaska Fairbanks; the University of Texas at Austin; and Virginia Commonwealth University.

National lab partners are the Argonne National Laboratory, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Idaho National Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Nevada National Security Site, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories, and Savannah River National Laboratory.

Engaging students in research in the nuclear nonproliferation field is a key part of this effort. The plan is to train more than 50 graduate students, provide internships for graduate and undergraduate students, and offer faculty-student lab visit fellowships. This pipeline aims to develop well-rounded professionals equipped with the expertise to tackle future nonproliferation challenges.

Paul Wilson is Grainger Professor of Nuclear Engineering and chair of the UW-Madison Department of Nuclear Engineering and Engineering Physics.

A version of this story was originally published by Georgia Tech.