The National Nuclear Security Administration has awarded funding of $50 million to two university consortia to support nuclear security and nonproliferation research.
The Enabling Capabilities in Technology Consortium led by the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and the Consortium for Enabling Technologies and Innovation led by the Georgia Institute of Technology will each receive $5 million annually from the Office of Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation for the next five years.
According to NNSA’s Nonproliferation Chief Jeff Chamberlin, the goal of the program is to develop concepts that national laboratories can replicate and the private sector can later adopt.
“These consortia are critical to the of future of NNSA’s nuclear security and nonproliferation research and development work,” he said.
University researchers will work with scientists from 12 of the Department of Energy national laboratories on the nonproliferation concepts.
Nuclear arms control has become a critical challenge amid rising global tensions.
The NNSA’s Office of Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation is in charge of ensuring that state and non-state actors are not developing or collecting materials that can be used to develop weapons of mass destruction.
The United States is one of the founding members of the International Atomic Energy Agency, which facilitates global cooperation on the safe and responsible use of nuclear technologies.