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Introduction:

Texas A&M University is in an exceptionally strong position among universities in the U.S. and in the world to play a key role in a broad array of nuclear research and education activities. Already world renowned programs in basic nuclear science research exist at the Cyclotron Institute of the College of Science. The Nuclear Engineering Department at Texas A&M is the largest and one of the highest ranked in the country. The department’s diverse set of faculty research interests span a range of application areas in nuclear science and technology, including nuclear power, reactor theory, nuclear materials, nuclear security, and health/medical physics. The Nuclear Security Science and Policy Institute (NSSPI) and the Bush School are working jointly on technical and policy solutions to the problems of the proliferation of nuclear weapons of mass destruction (WMD). The proposed Nuclear Solutions Institute (NSI) will add a level of integration to these entities, drawing them together into a common institute that will support multi-disciplinary research and education at Texas A&M.

The program at the NSI is anchored with basic research. In nuclear science, research with radioactive ion beams is one of the current forefront areas. It addresses questions as fundamental as the origin of the elements of which we are made and as practical as the development of new nuclear medicines and techniques, the projection of the lifetimes of satellites in space, and the prediction of the behavior of an aging nuclear weapon without performing nuclear tests. This field is being aggressively pursued world-wide; over $2.5B are being spent in countries around the world to develop new radioactive ion beam (RIB) capabilities, including over $0.5B in the U.S. The Texas A&M Cyclotron Institute (CI) is uniquely situated to play a key role in this critical and rapidly growing field. The nuclear science program based within the CI—one of five DOE Centers of Excellence—is already one of the best university-based efforts in the U.S. The centerpiece of the Institute’s in-house research program is a K500 superconducting cyclotron, one of only four such university-based accelerators in the world. The total capital investment in the Institute’s accelerators and equipment exceeds $75M in 2010 dollars. A major upgrade of the CI facilities is presently underway. With support from DOE, the CI has re-commissioned its original K150 cyclotron and is coupling the K150 to the K500 superconducting cyclotron so as to produce high-quality accelerated radioactive ion beams. The Institute’s upgraded accelerators will provide high-quality RIBs spanning an energy range that will not be covered elsewhere. Thus Texas A&M will be internationally competitive in this new RIB arena for many years. The upgrade will position Texas A&M to make crucial new contributions to our understanding of the basic forces in nature, the origin of the elements, and the properties of nuclei far from stability. It will also make more beam time available for important applied research efforts, such as studies of radiation damage to satellite-based electronics, which are currently being conducted at the CI and constitute a critical contribution to the nation’s communication network and national security.

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The radiation damage capabilities can also be employed in broader materials science applications. Next-generation reactor designs being pursued by faculty in Nuclear Engineering require significantly improved materials performance characteristics than can be provided by current technology. To overcome technological bottlenecks in the development of the required nuclear-hardened materials, an integrated experimental and modeling approach is critical. This program of research and development must include accelerator-based radiation testing and multi- scale modeling to link the atomic scale details to the macro-scale material performance. Materials can be tested by measuring damage from particle interactions with tools that include the K150 cyclotron, the 1-Megawatt nuclear reactor at Texas A&M’s Nuclear Science Center, and the suite of ion accelerators that support the nuclear materials program of NUEN. This array of tools allows for testing damage over a range of energies and with different particles, effectively covering all the different damage mechanisms that come into play. Furthermore, the validated modeling capability that comes from this research will guide us more efficiently towards advanced nanoscale materials design and synthesis to extend materials performance beyond current limitations.

Nuclear technology has made enormous contributions to medicine that currently benefit millions of patients. However, our current health-care system faces continuing challenges for further development including new medical discoveries and technologies to ameliorate the economic and societal burden of health care. Today, the health-care system is migrating from reacting to catastrophic illness to preventing them. A major emphasis is now being placed on developing new molecular diagnostic modalities for the early detection and prevention of diseases before they become intractable. Radioisotopes are recognized as a leading medical tool for this new paradigm. They can be used to label biological or chemical compounds (commonly referred to as molecular imaging agents), which are employed in nuclear medicine applications in trace amounts to generate detailed images of the body and uncover problems such as cancer and heart disease. The facilities of the CI, which will be utilized by Nuclear Engineering faculty, can play a major role in these developments through production techniques for new isotopes.

As energy requirements increase throughout the world, nations are turning to nuclear generated power as a way to fill the need with a minimal carbon footprint. As part of a nuclear power renaissance, efforts are aimed at developing a new generation of reactors that will be more efficient, more economical to build and operate, safer, and more proliferation resistant. The sustainability of this global expansion of nuclear energy will require research and development on many fronts. Improvements are needed in reactor design codes, fuel and structural materials, reprocessing methods, and waste management approaches. Cross-discipline NSI teams, for example, can use improved understanding of materials and neutron transport properties to enhance reactor codes and more accurately model reactor safety margins and long term operational lifetimes.

To benefit from the advances in nuclear technology, we must ensure that the dark side of this field—the potential proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD)—is held completely in check. Nuclear proliferation is one of the key concerns of the Obama administration, as it has been for previous administrations. This is evident in the statements made about the role of the National Nuclear Security Agency in the 2010 President’s budget request that emphasizes non- proliferation: “The Budget supports increased efforts to secure and dispose of nuclear material and invests in innovative science and technology to detect and deter nuclear smuggling and the

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development of weapons of mass destruction programs” (http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/). Furthermore, international issues loom that must be dealt with such as (a) verification challenges on the path to zero nuclear weapons, (b) the proposed Fissile Materials Cut-off Treaty, and (c) the Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty in 2012. Other issues which have international impact include (a) the recent 123 Agreement with India, (b) U.S. ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, and (c) the U.S. replacement nuclear warhead proposal. Addressing these issues requires a marriage of technology with policy, as explicitly addressed in the National Nuclear Security Agency budget statement. Texas A&M can make this marriage dream a reality by combining the public policy effort at the Bush School with the basic and applied nuclear science efforts in Engineering and Science.

Mission:

The mission of NSI is to foster and support collaborative research and education among groups in the Dwight Look College of Engineering, the George Bush School of Government and Public Service, the College of Science, and the College of Veterinary Medicine. In carrying out this mission, the NSI will make Texas A&M the leading university-based center in the country for nuclear studies, including basic nuclear science, energy applications and sustainability, environmental impact determination, nuclear threat reduction, biomedical applications and social impact measurements. Only major U.S. national laboratories, such as Los Alamos National Laboratory and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, will command more resources for working in this broad arena. No university program can rival them in sheer size, but standing at the academic pinnacle of nuclear scholarship will make Texas A&M particularly attractive as a place for the education of the next generation of leaders in this area.

The specific goals of NSI are to:

1. establish Texas A&M as the world leader in university-based nuclear science, applications, and policy;

2. stimulate and conduct cross-disciplinary research in basic nuclear science, nuclear applications, and nuclear policy;

3. support and expand graduate and undergraduate education in a variety of nuclear-related cross-disciplinary fields;

4. facilitate partnerships with national laboratories, leading universities, government organizations, and international partners;

5. educate the public so it can make more informed choices.

Justification:

Nuclear science and technology are key components for promoting new technologies, developing advanced medical diagnostics and treatment capabilities, and building a more energy efficient

infrastructure for the U.S. in the 21st Century. Furthermore, nuclear security is one of the most

important issues in the world today. It is imperative that we provide education to produce the next generation of leaders in nuclear science, technology, and nuclear security, and that we perform research to impact these issues today. Researchers and educators at Texas A&M are extremely well positioned to make significant contributions to these fields. By combining normally disparate efforts, Texas A&M will have a unique capability among educational institutions to attack cutting edge problems in this broad field. The NSI will provide a framework in which researchers and educators from different colleges can work together and succeed.

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The core programs now coalescing into joint working teams for this new institute are already strong. The faculty at the CI and their research programs, a multi-disciplinary effort involving the Chemistry and Physics & Astronomy Departments, were identified as one of the “rare strengths” in the College of Science 10-year research plan. The Nuclear Engineering Department has been recognized for some time as one of the top departments in the country. Fresh faculty additions have infused new research directions into the department, which match extraordinarily well with the NSI’s broad-based program. Recent ventures into multidisciplinary nuclear threat research at Texas A&M have laid the groundwork for establishing this as a major research area in the near future. Two Texas A&M/TEES multidisciplinary organizations have been established within the last few years, the Nuclear Security Science and Policy Institute and the Institute for National Security Education and Research. In collaboration with the Bush School, these institutes, which involve faculty Co-PI’s from eleven separate departments across five colleges, have won major awards for collaborative research conducted at the nuclear technology/policy interface. The College of Engineering’s 10-year strategic plan for research specifically targets energy, life-sciences, and threat reduction; the NSI’s research products will fuel advances in all three of these critical areas. The NSI will focus on topics of supreme national and global importance. It will involve world class researchers and bring additional ones to this university, and its activities will epitomize and greatly expand interdisciplinary research at Texas A&M. (Biographical sketches for key members of the NSI-associated faculty are attached.)

Nuclear Solutions Institute Activities:

NSI will be both a research and educational entity. The institute will enhance graduate education through research opportunities and through the introduction of specific new classes. These classes will provide a basic nuclear science education for students focusing on nuclear policy issues and instruction in nuclear policy strategies for students in basic and applied nuclear science programs. NSI will develop these courses within the Nuclear Engineering Department, the Physics & Astronomy and Chemistry Departments in the College of Science, and the Bush School. NSI will foster the development of courses in nuclear forensics and will support offering these courses as part of distance learning and short course certificate programs. In addition, the NSI will support existing international collaborations and work with institute members to develop new collaborations. Finally, through the Nuclear Engineering Department, NSI will initiate a new program in radiochemistry to carry out research and to train students in this important area, which is widely recognized as a critical national need.

NSI will incorporate existing research programs in the CI, NSSPI, and the Department of Nuclear Engineering, and NSI faculty and staff will develop new research programs in such areas as the following:

1. new strategies for medical imaging and cancer therapy; 2. accelerator- and reactor-based isotope production;

3. development of environmental sample analysis tools and robotics for potential contamination sites;

4. development of high density low-enriched-uranium fuels and other proliferation resistant technologies

5. advancing methods for detecting smuggled nuclear materials and developing nuclear forensics interpretation techniques to deter nuclear terrorism and enhance homeland security; analysis of international nuclear cooperation agreements;

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6. experimental studies to refine nuclear data to support advanced modeling efforts by reducing uncertainties in predictions;

7. analysis of the implications of new nuclear powers on the requirements of nuclear deterrence and U.S. national security policy;

8. defining the policy implications and likely support and opposition within the political community, both national and international, for new technology and the extension of existing nuclear-based technology;

9. developing policy recommendations, based on research, for international cooperation and trade of nuclear-based technologies, taking into account national security implications. Collaborative work associated with NSI also will extend beyond the Texas A&M borders, primarily to national laboratory groups. Already, many faculty associated with the program have strong research ties to national laboratory groups. Their work is being supported by a broad range of federal agencies including the Department of Energy (Basic Energy Sciences, Office of Nuclear Physics, National Nuclear Security Agency), the Department of Homeland Security, the National Institute of Health, and the National Science Foundation.

As the program grows, it likely will form links with other parts of the university community. One possible future connection is with the Hazard Reduction and Recovery Center. Much of the present effort at the Center focuses on research associated with weather related issues such as hurricanes. Extending this to terrorist events with nuclear WMD would fit well within the other parts of the proposed program.