This past fall, MIT’s Nuclear Reactor Lab (NRL) launched an inaugural Seed Fund Program as a means to cultivate new research areas and to obtain data in support of pursuing externally funded research proposals. The Seed Fund Program provides MIT faculty and research staff no-cost access to MIT Reactor’s irradiation facilities, post-irradiation evaluation (PIE) services, neutron activation analysis and gamma spectroscopy capabilities, and materials characterization instruments with support for irradiated materials.

Submissions were accepted until October 15th, 2017 which was followed by a feasibility review and then a merit review evaluating each proposal. Three proposals were selected:

• Effect of neutron irradiation on integrated photonic devices – Dr. Anu Agarwal (Principal Research Scientist, Microphotonics Center) and Dr. J.J. Hu (C. Flemings Career Development Associate Professor, Department of Materials Science and Engineering)
• Measurement of void fraction in transient boiling heat transfer using high-speed neutron tomography – Dr. Matteo Bucci (Assistant Professor, Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering)
• Confirmation of Radiation-Induced Magnetism (RIM) as a Method of Measuring Radiation Dose – Dr. Michael Short (Assistant Professor, Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering

The deadline for the next round of proposals for the NRL Seed Fund Program is April 15^th, 2018. More information may be found here: http://nrl.mit.edu/research/seed-program