The U.S. Department of Energy’s Nuclear Energy University Program (NEUP) announced a grant of $367,793 to be used for infrastructure at ACU’s Nuclear Energy eXperimental Testing Lab. The funding will support the radiochemistry aspect of NEXT Lab – specifically, establishing new and unique real-time direct chemical analysis capabilities for molten salt systems. For 2021, NEUP … Continued
When Keaton Brewster graduates in May with a degree in physics and mathematics, he’ll be taking with him more than a diploma. A research proposal stemming from his work in ACU’s NEXT Lab has earned him a prestigious fellowship from the National Science Foundation’s Graduate Research Fellowships Program. With his annual … Continued
Energy and electricity topics are dominating conversations in Texas after residents spent a week battling a major winter storm. Abilene Christian University, along with two other Texas universities, is at the forefront of advancing nuclear technology to address problems plaguing traditional energy sources – including unpredictable weather. Nuclear is the most dependable form of … Continued
Alli Mae (Bulkley ’20) Berry joined the team in ACU’s NEXT Lab as a research scientist just a month after graduating and five days before getting married. Despite the blur of life changes in such a short period of time, Berry jumped right into her work by learning the ins and outs of NEXT … Continued
Abilene Christian University’s Nuclear Energy eXperimental Testing Laboratory, or NEXT Lab, has taken another step toward the reality of a molten salt research reactor with the approval of its first patent. The U.S. Patent and Trademark office awarded ACU the patent for a high-temperature flow meter Aug. 5, 2020, after a three-year process of … Continued
Abilene Christian University and Abilene-based 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 … Continued
The NEXT Lab at Abilene Christian University has received a $120,000 budget renewal of the teams’ sponsored research award through Idaho National Laboratory, titled “Investigation of Instrumentation, Data Analytics, and Simulation Synergies for the Versatile Test Reactor.” This grant was initially awarded in August 2018 for $150,000 and represented the NEXT Lab’s first federal support. NEXT stands for Nuclear Energy eXperimental Testing. … Continued
Tom Bailey’s (’71) career as a professional mechanical engineer didn’t end when he retired in 2013 from Weatherford International, a Houston-based oilfield service company. But it did change directions. In Houston, Bailey was director of a large engineering department. Today, he is a senior mechanical engineer in ACU’s NEXT Lab, working with faculty and mentoring … Continued