WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today awarded $22.1 million to 10 industry-led projects, including two aimed at expanding clean hydrogen production with nuclear energy and one focused on bringing a microreactor design closer to deployment. The other projects intend to tackle nuclear regulatory hurdles, improve operations of existing reactors, and facilitate new advanced reactor developments. Each of these projects will help advance nuclear technology and ensure nuclear power continues to play a crucial role in meeting President Biden’s emission reduction and climate change goals.

These projects are funded through the Office of Nuclear Energy’s industry funding opportunity announcement (iFOA). Since 2018, the iFOA has invested more than $230 million into 48 projects from 31 different companies across 18 states. To date, 28 of the selected projects have successfully been completed. This is the final round of awards DOE will make through this funding opportunity. 

“The industry funding opportunity vitally assists in reducing technical and economic challenges associated with current and future nuclear technologies,” said Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy Dr. Kathryn Huff. “This final round of awards supports technological advancements to ensure nuclear energy keeps delivering emissions-free power for all Americans.”

The Office of Nuclear Energy, in partnership with the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, selected two new projects to support clean hydrogen production using nuclear reactors and demonstrate nuclear energy applications beyond electricity. The hydrogen project teams include: 

• General Electric Global Research (Niskayuna, NY) 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, LLC (Cranberry Township, PA) will carry out a series of engineering studies that will provide insights on coupling hydrogen technology with existing nuclear reactors.  

Other project teams selected under this funding opportunity include: 

• X-energy, LLC (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 Inc. (Charlotte, NC) will demonstrate advanced manufacturing of small modular reactor components to support the U.S. supply chain.
• 3M Company (Saint Paul, MN) will develop an isotope recovery process to enable commercial deployment of molten salt reactors.
• Constellation Energy Generation, LLC (Kennett Square, PA) will improve operational efficiency and flexibility of the current fleet of nuclear reactors.

The last four selected project teams will breakdown regulatory hurdles: 

• RhinoCorps (Albuquerque, NM) 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, TN) will develop a blueprint that reduces maintenance costs and outage time for the current fleet of nuclear reactors.
• General Atomics (San Diego, CA) will support accelerated fuel testing efforts to license new fuel types needed by advance reactor developers to deploy their technologies.
• Terrestrial Energy, USA (Charlotte, NC) will submit pre-licensing topical reports to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to advance the development of its molten salt reactors and reduce regulatory risk for advanced reactors. 

More information on the Office of Nuclear Energy’s iFOA awardees can be found HERE.

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