Texas A&M University will manage a low-energy nuclear science center for the National Nuclear Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) using a five-year, $10-million grant announced Thursday.
With the grant, the College State-based university will operate the Center for Excellence in Nuclear Training and University-based Research (CENTAUR): a project that combines experimental and theoretical physics initiatives to “measure relevant nuclear structure and reaction properties with a large focus on the use of radioactive beams and/or targets,” according to an agency press release.
The grant is part of part of the NNSA’s Stewardship Science Academic Alliances program. Texas A&M partner institutions on the project include Florida State University, Washington University in St. Louis, the University of Washington, and Louisiana State University, the NNSA said.
Nuclear physics initiatives such as CENTAUR help the NNSA with its mission to study and maintain aging U.S. nuclear weapons without resorting to nuclear-explosive tests. The NNSA also hopes the project will help it recruit young talent for its nuclear weapons labs.
Texas A&M University is one of the senior partners on Triad National Security, which in June won a contract to manage the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico beginning Oct. 1. The deal is worth up to $20 billion or so over 10 years, including options.
