UNT associate professor of mechanical and energy engineering Haifeng Zhang, together with researchers in the Pacific Northwest National Lab, earned a $1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to work on a solution for what he believes is a critical sensor problem in nuclear power plants -- they typically don't last long and are not easy to replace, making it harder to detect atypical operating conditions.

Zhang's sensors, however, will couple light and sound waves to measure different physical parameters in a reactor's core using the latest in piezoelectric technology. Piezoelectric sensors use the ability of certain materials to generate an electrical charge in response to applied mechanical stress to measure changes in pressure, acceleration, temperature, strain and force.