Haifeng Zhang, associate professor of mechanical engineering technology, is a major part of a collaboration that was awarded a $1 million grant from the Department of Energy to help create technology to monitor conditions inside spent nuclear fuel canisters in real time. He will work to use ultrasound through-wall data transmission to get sensor data from within the thick metal shells that hold spent fuel rods. Zhang is collaborating with Lei Zuo, associate professor of mechanical engineering at Virginia Tech, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and Westinghouse Electric Co.