An international experience in nuclear safeguards

Five nuclear engineering and radiological sciences graduate students recently attended a course on nuclear safeguards in Ispra, Italy, for an education and international perspective on the technology, policy, and law designed to keep nuclear materials away from terrorists and rogue states. Read more...

Making the case for nuclear in Washington

NERS chair Ronald Gilgenbach joined with colleagues in the Nuclear Engineering Department Heads Organization, the Nuclear Energy Institute, and the American Nuclear Society to request continued support for nuclear energy. Read more...

Restoring U-M’s most extreme windows

The Radiation Materials Science group has a grant to study how components break in long-running nuclear reactors, but they need a second working hot cell for the experiments. Unfortunately, the three-foot-thick windows on the second cell clouded over in the mid-1990s. Experts wanted nearly $250,000 to clean the 18 panes of glass in the cell's three windows, but a team of staff and grad students have tackled the job at a cost of about $16,000. Read more on Lablog...

A letter from Ron Gilgenbach, NERS Chair

As we begin 2013, I am pleased to acknowledge the outstanding teaching and research activities of NERS faculty, students and staff over the past year. Looking forward, our faculty and external advisory board have identified major research thrusts for the future, which cut across the traditional areas of NERS excellence to address the major challenges facing our nation and the world. Read more...

Slashing exposure time for plasma imaging

Laser-generated plasmas evolve too quickly and create forces too powerful to allow for easy observation, but a study at the Center for Ultrafast Optical Science demonstrated that electrons surfing on light waves can reveal their magnetic fields 1000 times faster than ever before. Read more...