A Khalifa University research proposal has been selected to be awarded the 2019 UAE Ministry of Education Collaborative Research Program Grant (CRPG2019) program.
The proposal, titled “Evaluation of Using Accident Tolerant Fuel Concepts in APR1400,” was one of four proposals selected from a total of 238 proposals submitted to the grant program. The KU researchers will receive approximately AED7 million across three years to pursue research aimed at demonstrating the superior performance of new advanced nuclear fuel in commercial nuclear power plants. Such advanced nuclear fuels that can help get more power out of nuclear power plants safely and reliably, could be a significant boost to the UAE’s goal of meeting growing energy demand sustainably.
A team of six faculty members from KU will carry out the research. The team includes Dr. Saeed Al Ameri, Assistant Professor of Nuclear Engineering, Dr. Ahmed Al Kaabi, Assistant Professor of Nuclear Engineering, Dr. Yongsun Yi, Assistant Professor of Nuclear Engineering, Dr. Daniel Choi, Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Dr. Imran Afgan, Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering, and Dr. Andreas Schiffer, Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering.
The team will also include 11 PhD students; all of the nuclear engineers will be UAE Nationals. The collaborative team will include external members from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) and The University of Manchester.
The aim of the CRPG grant is to build research teams of scale, focusing on an integrated research program capable of applying scientific excellence to the advancement of knowledge for the benefit of the UAE. The grant encourages researchers to pursue original and ambitious research questions.
Research projects considered for the CRPG must prove to have relevance to at least one of the UAE Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy focus areas. The KU project falls under the focus area of Solar and Alternative Energy Technology Systems.
The other three 2019 grant winners were Dr. Ioannis Manikas from the University of Wollongong in Dubai for a project in the category of Food Security; Dr. Bassam Ali from UAE University for a project in Health Information Technology and Bioinformatics; and Dr. Mohamed Ahmed M. Salim Alhammadi, also from UAE University, for a project under Education Innovation and Technology.
Erica Solomon
Senior Editor
8 April 2020
