NCET

Recycling spent nuclear fuel rather than storing it for millions of years in a facility such as Yucca Mountain is the subject of a University of Nevada, Reno research project funded recently by the U.S. Department of Energy.

Mano Misra, Director of the Center for Materials Research and a professor in the Department of Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering, said that the project will take the nuclear spent fuels from commercial reactors, which is almost 95 percent uranium, subject it to a high temperature Molten Salt Process that removes the toxic products and then return the uranium back to the reactor to be used again. This will reduce the demand of mining and processing of uranium from the ore.

“This will be so cost effective and safe, and solve the dilemma of disposal and storage of nuclear wastes,” Misra said. “One of the critical problems in the expansion of nuclear power is the limitation of waste management.”

“The nuclear waste created in the recycling process would be minimal compared to the quantities of nuclear waste needing storage now in a repository such as Yucca Mountain and would require much less time for storage,” he said. A part of that study is to assist in the development of thermodynamic parameters in the research in the electrochemical reprocessing of spent fuels which can be used by the National Laboratories to design efficient systems.

The DOE granted $2.7 million for this and another project in the College of Engineering’s Center for Materials Research.

Technorati Tags: University of Nevada Reno, U.S. Department of Energy, Mano Misra, Center for Materials Research, National Laboratories, NCET, Nevada’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology

…

It’s time for the annual Greater Reno-Tahoe Business Outlook Survey and Economic Outlook Index (EOI). The survey and index were created by InfoSearch International, the Glenn Group, EDAWN, and the Reno Sparks Chamber of Commerce and are conducted on an annual basis via the Internet.

The EOI is designed to measure and track any changes in Greater Reno-Tahoe’s economic outlook over time. Greater Reno-Tahoe’s EOI was established with the 2004 baseline survey at 100.0. Typical survey participants include EDAWN, Chamber and WIN members as well as a sampling of other senior level business people in the Greater Reno-Tahoe region.

You are a key contributor to knowing the needs and issues of businesses in the area. Your participation in this project is critical to business and economic development efforts in the region. Note that this survey is best suited for those with titles of manager or above.

Please take a few minutes to complete the survey by clicking on the link below. As a way of showing our appreciation for completing the survey, all survey participants will be entered to WIN 1 of 2 FREE passes to the Directions 2009 event (an $85 value)*.

The results of the winter 2008 survey will be presented at Directions 2009 (February 6, 2009 at the Reno Sparks Convention Center) and will subsequently be shared via email with all respondents.

To complete the survey, please click here.

*Drawing will be held on December 3, 2008. Winners will be contacted via email.

Last month at the NASA-Ames Research Center, a group of top scientists and business leaders gathered to plan a new university devoted to the idea that computers will soon become smarter than people.

The details of Singularity University, as the new institution will be called, are still being worked out — and so far the organizers are tight-lipped about their plans. But to hold such a discussion at all is a sign of growing acceptance that a new wave of computing technologies may be just ahead — with revolutionary implications for research and teaching. Read full story:

Technorati Tags: JEFFREY R. YOUNG, NASA-Ames Research Center, Singularity University, Ray Kurzweil, entrepreneur, The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology, Larry L. Smarr, California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology, National Center for Supercomputing Applications, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Ben Goertzel, Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence, University of Nevada at Las Vegas, Peter Diamandis, International Space University, NCET, Nevada’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology

…

Since the creation of the University of Nevada, Reno’s College of Science in 2004, Jeff Thompson has served as associate or interim dean. Thompson will continue to lead the college’s development, although now in the role of dean.

“Jeff has a strong resume of teaching and research productivity,” said University Provost Marc Johnson, who named Thompson to the role in late October. “His leadership performance over his career and the work he has done thus far has shown me he has the ability and passion to lead the college. In conversations with members of the faculty of the College of Science, it was apparent to me that Jeff is a well-respected leader who has shown he has the vision, the enthusiasm and the talent to foster the future of one of our largest colleges.”

Thompson received his bachelor of science degree from the University of California, Los Angeles and his doctorate in physics from the University of Tennessee. He did post-doctoral work at the Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics at the University of Colorado-Boulder. He joined the Nevada faculty in 1991 and served as chair of the Department of Physics from 2001 to 2004. His research is in the area of atomic and molecular physics, and he continues to be active in the field.

Technorati Tags: University of Nevada Reno, UNR College of Science, Jeff Thompson, Marc Johnson, Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics at the University of Colorado-Boulder, NCET, Nevada’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology

…