July 2, 2007 Proposals to reduce America's heavy dependence on
foreign oil are helping to renew interest in nuclear energy. And
at Kansas State University, the goal is to help make that energy
source as safe as possible. The K-State department of mechanical
and nuclear engineering has received a three-year, approximately
$550,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Energy's Nuclear
Energy Research Initiative for the project "Experimental
Development and Demonstration of Ultrasonic Measurement
Diagnostics for Sodium Fast Reactor Thermohydraulics." Principal
investigator Akira Tokuhiro, associate professor, along with
Bruce Babin, assistant professor, Terry Beck, professor, and
Mohammad Hosni, professor and department head, will look at
technology issues in sodium-cooled fast reactors. In reactor
design, creating the reactor core and then the cooling system
are the most important aspects, Tokuhiro said. "Liquid sodium
works well for this task," he said of the cooling system. Sodium
conducts heat better than water