Assistance program
National Nuclear Forensics Expertise Development Program
$5.2 Million committed in FY2018–FY2026
- Agency
- Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction, HOMELAND SECURITY, DEPARTMENT OF
- Assistance
- Cooperative Agreements;Project Grants
- CFDA number
- 97.130
- What it does
- The objectives of this program are: (1) to provide a stable foundation from which to develop and maintain the nuclear forensics workforce; (2) to provide an academic pathway from undergraduate to post-doctorate study in disciplines directly relevant to nuclear forensics, including but not limited to radiochemistry, geochemistry, nuclear physics, nuclear engineering, materials science, and analytical chemistry; and (3) to increase a diverse and highly talented cadre of new and emerging forensics experts who will fill specific expertise gaps in the area of nuclear forensics, an important homeland security mission. These objectives are aligned with the Nuclear Forensics and Attribution Act, P.L.111-140, reaffirmed in Sections 1923(a)(12) and 1926 of the Homeland Security Act of 2002, Pub. L. No. 107-296 (codified as amended at 6 U.S.C. §§ 592(a)(12), 596). The following goals have been established to meet these objectives: • Recruit and produce a new generation of leaders and technical experts in a wide range of fields relevant to nuclear forensics. • Enhance the ability for universities and the national and defense laboratories to work collaboratively on advanced research in the nuclear forensics field. • Implement nuclear forensics research awards to encourage undergraduate and graduate students to perform forensic-related research in collaboration with academic professors and researchers at the national laboratories. These awards promote research that advances nuclear forensics methods, such as detection, characterization of materials, and analysis of signatures, while encouraging universities to invest in these types of programs, and feed students into post-doctoral/permanent staff positions in nuclear forensics at the national laboratories or federal agencies.
- Who benefits
- Refer to the program guidance.
- Who applies
- Refer to the program guidance.
- Authorized by
- Nuclear Forensics and Attribution Act (Public Law 111-140; Sec. 4(a)(12).
Committed by fiscal year
* FY2026 is year-to-date — the fiscal year is still in progress, so its total is still filling in. The striped band and dashed line mark that provisional stretch.
Top recipients
By dollars committed.
How to read these numbers
- Committed through this program
Money committed under this assistance listing (its CFDA program), counted in the year each action happened.
- How it's paid
Most programs pay out one way — a grant, or a direct payment to individuals; the flow bar only appears when a program genuinely mixes types.
- Some recipients aren't itemized
For entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare, the government reports one aggregate instead of naming tens of millions of people, so the recipient roster isn't part of the public record.
- Awards, counted once
An award count is the number of distinct awards with at least one action that year — each counted once, however many times it was amended.
- The colored bars
Every bar on this page splits by how the money moves:
Direct payments