Grant Encylopedia

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) was created as an independent agency by Congress in 1974 to enable the nation to safely use radioactive materials for beneficial civilian purposes while ensuring that people and the environment are protected. The NRC regulates the nation's civilian use of byproduct, source, and special nuclear materials to ensure adequate protection of public health and safety, to promote the common defense and security, and to protect the environment.

The NRC?s Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research (RES) furthers the agency?s regulatory mission by providing technical advice, technical tools and information for identifying and resolving safety issues, making regulatory decisions, and promulgating regulations and guidance. RES is comprised of three technical divisions and one administrative division, each with it own responsibilities and program goals. Functional descriptions of each division can be found at http://www.nrc.gov/about-nrc/organization/resfuncdesc.html.

In accordance with Section 31b and 141b of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 as amended, RES awards support a discrete, specified, circumscribed project to be performed by named Project Directors/Principal Investigators (PDs/PIs) in areas representing the investigators ? specific interests and competencies, based on the mission of the NRC. Proposals to conduct independent experiments and analyses, develop technical bases for supporting realistic safety decisions by the agency, and evaluating safety issues involving current and new designs and technologies will be accepted. Although the PDs/PIs write the grant application and are responsible for conducting and supervising the research, the actual applicant is the research institution/organization. Submitted applications are assigned to the appropriate division with expertise in the subject area.

This FOA allows the PDs/PIs to define the scientific focus or objective of the research based on particular areas of interest and competence. Prior year RES awards include topics such as nuclear materials safety research, radioactive waste safety research, fire research, digital instrumentation and controls, advanced VHTR gas-cooled reactor, probabilistic risk assessment training, basic research on high temperature gas reactor thermal hydraulics and reactor physics.