Award Data

Seawater contains about 3 parts per billion of uranium. With a total ocean volume of approximately 1.3109 km3, there is at least 4.5 billion tons of uranium in seawater which is about 1000 times the amount of uranium known to exist in terrestrial ores. Mining uranium from seawater is economically feasibility if an efficient, reusable and low-cost adsorbent could be developed. In the past year, ...

The US continues to need improvements in capability to deal with the imminent threat of theft of nuclear weapons from a foreign storage facility by a terrorist cell with insider assistance. At the heart of this challenge is the need to develop alternative signature exploitation technologies, taggants, that can be easily observed using sensors capable of detection over large areas and at high resol ...

First commercial High Temperature Superconductors (HTS) are all tape shaped (widths > 10 times thickness), because achieving useful current densities required them to be processed into tape form, even though this also makes it more problematic to use them in some important coil types, for example in ramped and ac field modes; compact, high uniformity solenoid coils; and in large coils where low in ...

Successful commercialization and market adoption of electric drive vehicles (EVs) requires development of fast-charge capable Li-ion storage technologies that can deliver >350Wh/kg, well above what can be achieved with current battery materials. Implementation of next generation cathode and anode materials is needed to further increase specific energy of Li-ion cells. However, without pre-lithiati ...

This project will improve the performance of a key element of particle and light- sensitive detectors. They are used in diverse applications such as high energy physics experiments, medical diagnostic machines and space science missions. This work will improve the manufacturability and sensitivity of devices known as “microchannel plates”, which are sensitive to particles and UV light. Specifi ...

Over 1 billion people suffer from the effects of water scarcity and a great majority of those affected live near a coastline in developing countries, on islands, and in remote communities. To satisfy the potable water needs of a rapidly growing world population, experts agree that seawater desalination on a large scale is required. However, while seawater desalination can solve many global water s ...

The cost of anchoring offshore floating wind turbines is an obstacle to reducing the cost of energy from offshore floating wind projects and presents an opportunity for savings. Deep water at sites on the West Coast further drives up these costs. Traditional anchoring systems use large heavy weights, casings, or high drag embedment forces to achieve high-pullout forces required for moorings. High ...

Nuclear power is the most environmentally benign way to produce electricity on a large scale. The successful use of nuclear power, however, is dependent upon adequate and safe processing and disposal of spent nuclear fuels. An important feature of nuclear energy is that spent fuels can be reprocessed to recover fissile and fertile materials and then used as fresh fuel for nuclear power plants. In ...

There is a clear and unmet need for technologies to improve power generation flexibility to enable cost effective and reliable high renewable energy fractions in modern grids. Specifically, gas turbine generator turndown ratio may be improved by extending combustion lean flammability limits. This project will deliver a prototype plasma reformer system integrated with gas turbine combustors to allo ...

Nuclear detection and spectroscopy is used to detect and characterize global nuclear security threats and prevent spread of materials, technology, and expertise related to weapons of mass destruction. High performance scintillation detectors are the backbone of such tools. Recent advances in scintillators have demonstrated superior spectroscopic qualities, rivaling those of the semiconductor detec ...