The projects are being funded through the Office of Nuclear Energy’s industry funding opportunity announcement. Since 2018, the iFOA has invested more than $230 million into 48 projects from 31 different companies across 18 states, the DOE noted, adding that to date, 28 of the selected projects have been successfully completed. This latest round of awards is the last the DOE will make through the iFOA.
“The industry funding opportunity vitally assists in reducing technical and economic challenges associated with current and future nuclear technologies,” said Kathryn Huff, the DOE’s assistant secretary for nuclear energy. “This final round of awards supports technological advancements to ensure nuclear energy keeps delivering emissions-free power for all Americans.”
The awards go to: The 10 projects and their goals are as follows:
- General Electric Global Research (Niskayuna, N.Y.) will scale up co-electrolysis technology to produce a carbon-neutral aviation fuel and demonstrate a conceptual design with an advanced nuclear reactor.
- Westinghouse Electric Company (Cranberry Township, Pa.) will carry out a series of engineering studies that will provide insights on coupling hydrogen technology with existing nuclear reactors.
- X-energy (Rockville, Md.) will complete a preliminary design of a microreactor to advance design elements and bring it closer to commercial deployment.
- The Electric Power Research Institute (Charlotte, N.C.) will demonstrate advanced manufacturing of small modular reactor components to support the U.S. supply chain.
- 3M Company (Saint Paul, Minn.) will develop an isotope recovery process to enable commercial deployment of molten salt reactors.
- Constellation Energy Generation (Kennett Square, Pa.) will improve the operational efficiency and flexibility of the current fleet of nuclear reactors.
- RhinoCorps (Albuquerque, N.M.) will create a roadmap to help reactor licensees assess defensive strategies and incorporate modeling and simulation into their security assessment processes.
- Analysis and Measurement Services Corporation (Knoxville, Tenn.) will develop a blueprint that reduces maintenance costs and outage time for the current fleet of nuclear reactors.
- General Atomics (San Diego, Calif.) will support accelerated fuel testing efforts to license new fuel types needed by advanced reactor developers to deploy their technologies.
- Terrestrial Energy USA (Greenwich, Conn.) will submit prelicensing topical reports to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to advance the development of its molten salt reactors and reduce regulatory risk for advanced reactors.
