University of North Texas professor Jincheng Du and researchers from various universities will receive at least $8 million to make nuclear waste disposal safer.

The funds from the U.S. Department of Energy will be used to create the Center for Performance and Design of Nuclear Waste Forms and Containers.

UNT Associate Professor Jincheng Du. [Photo: UNT]

“It will be a great opportunity for UNT and our students working on this project. They will work with researchers and peers from other institutions of the center and it will be a great learning experience for them,” said Du, a materials science and engineering associate professor, in a release.

Du and the team will examine the break down processes of materials that store waste such as glass, ceramics, and metals. With this, they hope their research can lead to a storage option that will last for hundreds of thousands to millions of years. 

“We are looking to the fundamental corrosion mechanisms of glass, and the design of glass compositions and their containing environments to make them even more durable for that long-term timeframe in geological storages,” Du said. 

Delivering what’s new and next in Dallas-Fort Worth innovation, every day. Get the Dallas Innovates e-newsletter.