Final report on the University of Florida U.S. Department of Energy 1995--96 Reactor Sharing Program

Grant support has been well used by the University of Florida as host institution to support various educational institutions in the use of the reactor and associated facilities as indicated in the proposal. These various educational institutions are located primarily within Florida. However, when the 600-mile distance from Pensacola to Miami is considered, it is obvious that this Grant provides access to reactor utilization for a broad geographical region and a diverse set of user institutions serving over twelve million inhabitants throughout the State of Florida and still others throughout the nation. All users and uses were carefully screened to assure the usage was for educational institutions eligible for participation in the Reactor Sharing Program; where research activities were involved, care was taken to assure the research activities were not funded by grants for contract funding from outside sources. In some cases external grant funding is limited or is used up, in which case the Reactor Sharing Grant and frequent cost sharing by the UFTR facility and the University of Florida provide the necessary support to complete a project or to provide more results to make a complete project even better. In some cases this latter usage has aided renewal of external funding. The role of the Reactor Sharing Program, though relatively small in dollars, has been the single most important occurrence in assuring the rebirth and continued high utilization of the UFTR in a time when many better equipped and better placed facilities have ceased operations. Through dedicated and effective advertising efforts, the UFTR has seen nearly every four-year college and university in Florida make substantive use of the facility under the Reactor Sharing Program with many now regular users. Some have even been able to support usage from outside grants where the Reactor Sharing Grant has served as seed money; still others have been assisted when external grants were depleted