The US Department of Energy (DOE) on 27 March announced funding of $19 million for four domestic advanced nuclear technology projects.
The awards are through the Office of Nuclear Energy’s US Industry Opportunities for Advanced Nuclear Technology Development. The projects are cost-shared and are intended to allow industry-led teams, including participants from federal agencies, public and private laboratories, institutions of higher education, and other domestic entities, to develop US commercial nuclear capability.
This is the fourth round of funding following earlier announcements in April, July and November. The total of the four rounds is approximately $117 million. Further quarterly application review and selection processes will be conducted over the next four years. The solicitation is broken into three funding pathways: First-of-a-Kind (FOAK) Nuclear Demonstration Readiness Project pathway, Advanced Reactor Development Projects pathway, and Regulatory Assistance Grants pathway.
One project was selected under the FOAK Nuclear Demonstration Readiness Project pathway, which would provide $12.9 million to prepare Westinghouse Electric Corp’s 25MWe eVinci micro-reactor for nuclear demonstration readiness by 2022 for design, analysis, testing and licensing to manufacture, site and test the reactor by 2022. It is also expected to receive Non-DOE funding of $15,675,350.
Two projects were selected under the Advanced Reactor Development Projects pathway. A project proposed by Dirac Solutions will receive DOE funding of $1,000,000 and non-DOE of $250,000 to develop and commercialise next generation specialised wireless sensing and monitoring passive and semi-passive tags integrated with sensors for the remote process monitoring of advanced reactors. A proposal by Kairos Power is to receive DOE funding of $5,000,000 and non-DOE funding of $5,112,519 to bring forward in the schedule critical advanced modelling and simulation capability
One project was selected under the Regulatory Assistance Grant pathway will receive DOE funding of $500,000 and non-DOE funding of $203,957 for Kairos Power o develop a mechanistic source term for the KP- Kairos Power Fluoride Cooled High Temperature Reactor design including consideration of radionuclides generated and transported in the fuel particle and the barriers to release for licensing basis event analyses.