University of South Carolina awarded grant to explore safer ways to store nuclear waste

The University of South Carolina was awarded an $8 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to explore new, sustainable ways to store hazardous nuclear waste. With the award, Carolina becomes one of only four new national Energy Frontier Research Centers in the country.

Hanno zur Loye, a chemistry professor and associate dean for research in the College of Arts and Sciences, says the goal of the Center for Hierarchical Waste Form Materials is to develop novel storage materials that can contain nuclear waste for thousands of years. With this project, zur Loye and his team will work to develop and test new methods that include the use of specialized ceramics, metal-organic composite materials and nanoparticles to safely contain some of the most long-lasting forms of nuclear waste — including waste from power plants and nuclear weapons.