News & Calendar

The premiere of Dancing in the Desert will take place on Wednesday, 23 August, at 2 pm on the Delft Markt town square. Admission is free. In this beautiful documentary, a team of filmmakers including Bram van Splunteren follow the student team working on the Nuna 11. It’s an exciting job, especially when you realise that the Nuna 10 caught fire during the previous Solar Challenge in Australia. Will these students succeed in designing and building an entirely new Nuna from scratch? Will it finish the race through the Moroccan desert and maybe even win it?

“The way we construct our buildings needs to change.” says Arjan van Timmeren professor of Environmental Technology & Design at TU Delft. Over 35% of our global greenhouse gas emissions are attributable to the built environment. A third of that amount is specifically related to the production of abiotic (non-renewable) materials such as concrete, metals and plastics. The associated challenges are not only climate related, but also concern resource scarcity, health and housing provision.

Nineteen consortia receive funding to work on scientific and societal breakthroughs. Of these, two NWA-ORC awards go to TU Delft scientists. Active collaboration between different research disciplines, different knowledge institutions and with public sectors and industry are at the core of the projects. The projects have received funding in the fourth round of the Dutch Research Agenda programme Research along Routes by Consortia (NWA-ORC).

Nick ter Veer, a PhD student at the Delft University of Technology, has recently synthesized a promising thorium chloride salt, that can be used to fuel a new generation of nuclear reactors. Thorium has great potential, in combination with an uranium or plutonium based fuel, for a more sustainable nuclear fuel cycle, thereby producing less long lived radioactive waste. Together with the Reactor Physics & Nuclear Materials research team, he is now looking at this salt’s properties, to assess its suitability for use in the so-called Molten Salt Reactors.

The Dutch Research Council (NWO) has awarded two e-Refinery researchers a Vidi grant of up to €800,000. This will allow the laureates to develop an innovative line of research and further expand their own research group over the next five years.