University of Tennessee, Knoxville Chancellor Donde Plowman appeared with leadership from Y-12 to sign a memo establishing a new partnership to share ideas, resources and staff between the two public institutions. As part of the partnership, the two unveiled plans to establish the National Security Prototype Center, a think tank that will combine academic resources from UT with Y-12’s national security expertise to help advance nuclear manufacturing capabilities.
“The National Security Prototype Center [is] the first of its kind in the nation, and one that will accelerate the nuclear renaissance already underway here in Tennessee, reinforcing our region's reputation as a global leader in the nuclear economy,” Plowman said. “UT is well positioned and excited about this to contribute a unique set of research strengths and capabilities to this center, including … advanced materials, integrated manufacturing, nuclear energy and security and AI, just to name a few.”
Appearing alongside Plowman was Rich Tighe, the president and CEO of Consolidated Nuclear Security, which has operated Y-12 under a contract from the Department of Energy since 2014. He said the partnership between UT and Y-12 will essentially involve putting top minds from both institutions in the same room to try and figure out how to overcome known obstacles in nuclear manufacturing.
“The challenges we have are working with unique alloys … and developing the machining and fabrication capabilities to bring those materials into something that we can go into production with,” Tighe said. “And I think that's exactly what this will allow us to do, and bring those from prototype into manufacturing more quickly.”
In an infographic, Y-12 claimed the center could create nearly 700 permanent jobs and inject almost $340 million into the economy, though Tighe and Plowman were hesitant to place a price tag on the development of the center so soon.
“Without sort of a cognitive or conceptual framework for what you're trying to do, it can get lost,” Plowman said. “Let's nail down the mission and the vision for this relationship, and then we'll go from there.”
Plowman added that UT has a little over 30 faculty who specialize in nuclear engineering and related fields that it’s prepared to commit to the center, while also acting as a way for students to get hands-on learning and potential job opportunities after graduation.
“What it provides to us is a direct pipeline to the talent that is produced from the university so that we can recruit the next generation of engineers and scientists to Y-12 to fulfill the mission in the decades to come,” Tighe said.
The new partnership and the establishment of the center comes as federal and state interest in nuclear energy continues to grow. In February, Department of Energy Secretary Chris Wright appeared in Oak Ridge and expressed his desire to spark a “nuclear renaissance” centered largely on East Tennessee. Last week, the Tennessee Valley Authority made history as the first public utility provider to request a permit from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for a small, modular nuclear reactor to be built in Oak Ridge.
