As part of President Obama's commitment to support higher education, Secretary of Energy Steven Chu announced that the University of Florida has been awarded close to $1 million in grant funds for the nuclear engineering program. Most of the money will fund research on advanced nuclear fuel and fuel cycle technologies that enhance the accident tolerance of light water reactors and safe sustainable fuel cycles. UF nuclear engineering professor James Tulenko says this research is particularly important in the wake of the nuclear disasters in Japan
The research program that the grants will fund is set to go for three years, at which point it will bring the cooling technology to demonstration phase. Nationally, the energy department is giving out 143 awards totaling $47 million.