GAIN vouchers connect three companies with national lab experts

The awards: NE vouchers provide advanced nuclear technology innovators with access to the nuclear research capabilities and expertise of the Department of Energy national laboratory complex for work that supports the production and utilization of nuclear energy. All awardees are responsible for a minimum 20 percent cost share, which could be an in-kind contribution.

• Radiant, of El Segundo, Calif., will partner with Idaho National Laboratory on “Microreactor control drum failure simulation.” Radiant is developing a transportable high-temperature gas microreactor and will work with INL to develop a transient model to simulate “runaway” control drum motion so that Radiant can finalize control drum motor sizing and control system loop stability.
• Oklo, of Sunnyvale, Calif., will partner with Argonne National Laboratory on “Experimental and systems-level validation of thermal-hydraulic behavior in sodium fast reactors.” The team will gather data on two phenomena of liquid metal fast reactors: thermal stratification and the transition to natural circulation.
• Lightbridge, of Reston, Va., will partner with Pacific Northwest National Laboratory on the “Development of casting techniques for δ-phase uranium-zirconium alloys.” The total project value is approximately $664,000, according to Lightbridge, with three-quarters of that amount funded through the voucher for work performed by PNNL. The project will use depleted uranium as a surrogate material.

More information on the GAIN nuclear energy voucher program is available online.