A $1.3 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy giving Tennessee Tech Students experience in radiochemistry.
Assistant Professor of Chemistry David Dan said he applied for the grant so students could have more engagement with nuclear science, which a big push from the DOE. Dan said six students will research separating the Promethium 147 isotope, which hard to come by naturally.
“We have to be able to separate it from neighboring elements with similar chemistry,” Dan said. “So we;re going about the separation using what’s called metal organic framework, which essentially is a metal node molecule that links all of these molecules together to make a 3D structure.”
Dan said these materials are variable, meaning they can be changed and functionalized easily. Dan said Promethium 147 is used for space exploration as well as radio therapy or cancer treatment in the medical field.
Dan said he hopes students learn how to work with radioactive material. Dan said there are limited opportunities for students to gain this kind of experience. Dan said he hopes students learn problem solving, independent thinking, and how to become better scientists after being exposed to this kind of research.
“The biggest hurdle with working with radioisotopes is making sure that people are comfortable working with them,” Dan said. “You don’t really know if you’re comfortable working with radioisotopes until you actually do it.”
Dan said four of the six students participating in the program are undergraduates. They will spend the school year and a summer researching with Dan at Tech, and another at Oak Ridge University. Dan said this unique research opportunity can open a lot of doors to careers.
“They’re getting that experience, getting a leg up on other people, especially coming straight out of undergrad,” Dan said. “It makes them especially competitive when it comes to national labs, when it comes to going to grad school. For the masters students, if they want to continue their education, it makes them again, extremely marketable for graduate schools all across the country as well as possibly getting jobs at national labs.”
Dan said there is a negative connotation around nuclear power because people can’t see radiation Dan said entertainment has also contributed to the stigma.
“It’s seen as an unsafe technology because of the possibility of nuclear meltdown or something like that,” Dan said. “But nowadays, the technology is so mature that the dangers people worry about aren’t really there.”
The grant runs for three years.
