The INL / NCSU joint appointment for Dr. John Gilligan supports his efforts as the Nuclear Energy University Program Integration Office Director. NEUP awards approximately $60M annually in a competitive process to US universities for research and development and infrastructure awards. Work plan One half of the time of Dr. Gilligan is dedicated to the NEUP program to provide guidance, advice, program plans, summaries, and coordinated discussions and meetings at various locations including DOE?]HQ, INL, workshop locations and universities. Budget Justification One half of Dr. Gilligan?s salary is covered by the joint appointment over a twelve month period. Travel is included to cover travel to Washington, INL, various universities and meeting locations.

The INL / NCSU joint appointment for Dr. John Gilligan supports his efforts as the Nuclear Energy University Program Integration Office Director. NEUP awards approximately $60M annually in a competitive process to US universities for research and development and infrastructure awards. Work plan One half of the time of Dr. Gilligan is dedicated to the NEUP program to provide guidance, advice, program plans, summaries, and coordinated discussions and meetings at various locations including DOE?]HQ, INL, workshop locations and universities. Budget Justification One half of Dr. Gilligan?s salary is covered by the joint appointment over a twelve month period. Travel is included to cover travel to Washington, INL, various universities and meeting locations.

Support is requested for Professor John Gilligan to serve as Director of the US DOE Nuclear Energy University Program (NEUP). This will be a Joint Faculty member appointment at a ���� time annual level with the Idaho National Laboratory, Center for Advanced Energy Studies (CAES). Dr. Gilligan will be based in the Department of Nuclear Engineering at NC State University in Raleigh and provide technical expertise, leadership and management guidance in the Director's role for the NEUP program. In order to carry out these duties, requested support will include the Director's salary (1/2 time), benefits, travel, space/supplies, IT/data and meeting support. Meetings and visits will be carried out in Idaho and other locations. The NEUP office at NCSU is a large effort for the DOE-NE (over $70M per year) and requires sufficient support for operations.

The objective of this proposal is to develop quantitative engineering design tools to improve the design and operation of bioreactor landfills. This proposal will result in the formation of a cooperative partnership between the solid waste industry, regulatory authorities (e.g., USEPA, state agencies), the engineering community, and academia via the National Science Foundation?s Partnerships for Innovation (PFI) program. Three areas have been identified where research by the partnership can directly contribute to improvements in bioreactor technology by reducing cost and increasing predictability: (i) landfill hydrology, (ii) solids decomposition, and (iii) settlement prediction. In the area of landfill hydrology, research will be conducted to understand flow patterns and residence times for leachate and other liquids injected into full-scale landfills. Research on this topic is needed to develop operational guidelines for leachate injection and to evaluate the behavior of liquid waste streams that may be added to bioreactor landfills. The work on solids decomposition will be designed to measure the rate and extent of biodegradation of specific waste components in landfills and how these rates depend on operating conditions. Finally, a predictive model will be developed that relates moisture, solids decomposition, and waste settlement. In all three areas, fundamental studies at laboratory-scale are tightly coupled to field-scale work at fully operational bioreactor landfills.