DOE / NEUP $1,000,000 AWARD

Dr. Krishna C. Mandal, Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering, has recently been awarded a research grant of $1,000,000 for his project, "Enriched Boron-Doped Amorphous Selenium Based Position-Sensitive Solid-State Thermal Neutron Detector for MPACT Applications". This four year project is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Nuclear Energy University Programs (NEUP). Prof. Sudarshan (USC, EE Chair) and Prof. Arnold Burger (Fisk University) are collaborators for this research project. The program will support three to four graduate and undergraduate students, including minority students. The work will provide the students with interdisciplinary research opportunities in the fields of semiconducting materials synthesis, characterization, fabrication of nuclear detectors and detection system engineering. The students will also have the opportunities to interact with researchers at Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) and be exposed to nuclear radiation research.

As a sustainable energy source, nuclear energy has become an important component of nations’ energy portfolio. With domestic and global expansion of nuclear power and development of nuclear fuel cycle processes, there are growing concerns about the nuclear proliferation and terrorism risk arising from potential access to special nuclear materials (SNMs) enrichment and reprocessing technologies. Thus, deployment of portable, high performance, solid-state nuclear spectrometers are needed for international safeguards to monitor used fuel recycling activities, verification of nuclear non-proliferation treaty, and surveillance of nuclear terrorism activities.

The demands of such spectrometers are not fully covered by the current detection system which uses gas (3He) proportional counters. Furthermore, a world-wide shortage of 3He gas has further prompted to design an alternative system. Therefore, Mandal’s group is developing a new room-temperature direct readout solid-state thermal neutron detector without the requirement of 3He. The potential outcome of this research work is development of a compact, highly sensitive, low power consuming device that would find widespread use in nuclear power plants, nuclear waste management.

Left to Right: DARPA Director Dr. Regina Dugan, Dr. Krishna
Mandal, and Deputy Director Dr. Ken Gabriel at the awards
ceremony held in September 2010.