The kickoff meeting for INAA research on water resources took place at the USDA Experimental Station in Reno. Dr. Zaijing Sun, the Principal Investigator (PI) from the Department of Health Physics and Diagnostic Sciences at UNLV, Dr. Frank Yang, the Co-PI from the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering at UNR, and Ms. Christine Kelly, the Co-PI from the Nevada Radon Education Program at the USDA Experiment Station in Reno convened to officially kick off the project titled “Applying Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis (INAA) to Study the Increasing Toxicity of Heavy Metals in Water Resources in Clark County.” The meeting involved discussions on the environmental challenges confronting Southern Nevada due to the ongoing megadrought and population growth. Agreements were reached regarding the implementation of sample collection and neutron irradiation processes. Following the meeting, Dr. Sun had the opportunity to explore the laboratories at the Water Research Institute at UNR, gaining insights into the facilities’ capabilities.

The primary execution of the research will be led by the HERD group at the UNLV campus. The funding for this project is provided by the USDA Extension through the UNR-UNLV partnership program, contributing to further enhancing UNLV’s status as a land-grant institution.