ND Receives Funding for Energy Frontier Research Center

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has granted $18.5 million in funding to Notre Dame for an Energy Frontier Research Center (EFRC). EFRCs, which will pursue advanced scientific research on energy, are being established by the DOE’s Office of Science at universities, national laboratories, nonprofit organizations, and private firms across the nation.

The 46 EFRCs were selected from a pool of some 260 applications received in response to a solicitation issued by the DOE Office of Science in 2008. Selection was based on a rigorous merit review process utilizing outside panels composed of scientific experts.

Peter C. Burns, Massman Chair and Professor in the ND’s Department of Civil Engineering and Geological Sciences, will be director of the new center.

Notre Dame’s EFRC is titled “Materials Science of Actinides.” It will focus on the elements that are the basis of nuclear energy (uranium, plutonium and other actinides). Research in the center will seek to understand and control materials that contain actinides at the nanoscale, which is about one-millionth of the size of the tip of a ballpoint pen. This research is intended to lay the scientific foundation for advanced nuclear energy systems that may provide much more energy while creating less nuclear waste.

Of the 46 EFRCs selected, 31 are led by universities, 12 by DOE National Laboratories, two by nonprofit organizations, and one by a corporate research laboratory. The criterion for providing an EFRC with Recovery Act funding was job creation. The EFRCs chosen for funding under the Recovery Act provide the most employment for postdoctoral associates, graduate students, undergraduates, and technical staff, in keeping with the Recovery Act’s objective to preserve and create jobs and promote economic recovery