$2 MILLION INFUSION

Research grants fuel work at ISU complex

POCATELLO — In the wake of an announcement that Idaho State University Nuclear Engineering and Health Physics Associate Professor Eric Burgett was awarded two grants totaling roughly $2 million, a small crew of workers is in the middle of reassembling various types of equipment that will be used for research purposes at the Idaho Joint Research Complex, 1651 Alvin Ricken Drive.
  
Outside of the facility, the Ballard Medical Products lettering has been removed from the monument sign, the landscape has been spruced up and an orange and black ISU flag can be seen flapping in the wind near the front entrance.
  
The former industrial manufacturing site was recently purchased by university officials for $3.6 million.
  
“We’re still in the ‘ramping up’ phase and were just barely given permission to occupy the building,” Burgett said. “I expect the first accelerator to make it here from Atlanta within the next two weeks.”
  
Researchers now have more than one “clean room” where they can go to use devices such as electronic scanning microscopes.
  
“That is the beauty of (the acquisition),” Burgett said. “The facility is a perfect fit for what we need.”
  
Once the infrastructure is in place, Burgett will delve deep into his research project that garnered the attention of those representing the U.S. Department of Energy. With the DOE grant money, he plans on developing advanced radiation detectors that can measure the level of fuel inside nuclear reactors.
  
“The technology that could spin out of this project could lead to the prevention of incidents that involve the threat of radiation exposure, like what happened in Japan (following a massive earthquake and tsunami that had a negative effect on the country’s nuclear reactors),” Burgett said. “The multidisciplinary approach we are taking is unique.”
  
Besides partnering with the Idaho National Laboratory and ON Semiconductor, Burgett said there has been talk that IJRC researchers will pair up with the Department of Homeland Security and the Food and Drug Administration in order to fulfill the entities’ research needs.

Such work will require that various types of researchers and technicians will relocate in Pocatello.
  
“Safety is going to be paramount in everything we do here,” Burgett concluded.