ABILENE, Texas,
July 31, 2020 /PRNewswire/
-- Abilene Christian University and Natura Resources LLC are
partnering in a $30.5 million effort
to design and license a research reactor in collaboration with
three other major universities. Natura will provide $21.5 million to ACU over the next three years,
the largest sponsored research agreement in the university's
history.
ACU's Nuclear Energy eXperimental Testing Laboratory, or NEXT
Lab, is leading NEXTRA – the Nuclear Energy eXperimental Testing
Research Alliance – among four universities with extensive
experience in physics and engineering. Launched in Spring 2019, the
consortium's goal is to design, license and commission the first
university-based molten salt research reactor, which ACU will host
and own.
Georgia Institute of Technology,
Texas A&M University and The
University of Texas at Austin are the
other three consortium members. Natura's funding commitment to them
accounts for $9 million of the
overall agreement.
"We are incredibly pleased and honored to sponsor this
remarkable multi-disciplinary collaboration of talented researchers
– physicists, engineers, chemists and their students – to support
our vision to develop advanced energy systems that are inherently
safe, sustainable and environmentally friendly," said Dr.
Tony Hill, Natura director of
product development.
Research led by ACU's NEXT Lab continues to gain visibility with
support from the U.S. Department of Energy and key stakeholders in
the local community and across the region.
"The groundbreaking research that Abilene
Christian is poised to continue regarding nuclear energy has
incredible potential," said Texas
Sen. Dawn Buckingham. "Partnerships
such as these will help keep our state and nation on the cutting
edge, and I am proud to support such efforts."
The NEXT Lab is dedicated to finding real-world solutions to
some of the world's most critical needs, including:
- Safer, cleaner and less expensive energy
- Pure and abundant water
- Medical isotopes for diagnosing and treating cancer
A molten salt research reactor (MSRR) using liquid fuel as
opposed to solid fuel is the first step to achieving those
outcomes.
"The ACU-led construction of a research reactor will establish
NEXT Lab as the world leader in molten salt reactor research," said
Dr. Rusty Towell, professor of
engineering and physics at ACU and director of the lab. "This
alliance with Georgia Tech,
Texas A&M and Texas gives our students in physics,
engineering and chemistry an unprecedented opportunity to continue
contributing to world-changing technology."
Abilene Christian's Department of
Engineering and Physics has nearly four decades of experience in
national laboratories such as Brookhaven, Fermi and Los Alamos,
where its undergraduate students have the rare opportunity to work
alongside their professors and other physicists from around the
globe. Some of the top discoveries in physics in recent years were
made possible by important contributions to testing and research by
ACU faculty, undergrads and alumni.
Abilene Christian is the
highest-ranking university in Texas in a 2020 U.S. News & World
Report benchmark focused on student success. ACU achieved Top 20
status in three of eight high-impact categories among 1,500
universities evaluated for "A Focus on Student Success" and is the
only Texas institution to be
ranked in five of the categories. Learn more at acu.edu.
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SOURCE Abilene Christian
University