The US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Nuclear Energy announced on September 24 four new Gain vouchers to help companies advance microreactor technologies, identify potential sites capable of hosting a nuclear-powered data centre, and prevent corrosion in molten salt reactors.
Gain is the Gateway for Accelerated Innovation in Nuclear. Like all Gain vouchers, these – the fourth and final round for fiscal year 2024 – do not give companies direct financial awards.
Instead, they provide access to the nuclear research capabilities and expertise of the DOE’s national laboratories. All awardees are responsible for a minimum 20% cost share, which could be an in-kind contribution.
The awardees are:
Tennessee-based ANA, who will partner with Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) to identify potential sites in the US that could host advanced nuclear capacity and data centres.
Antares Nuclear of California will work with ORNL to perform an independent technical audit of the company’s heat pipe–cooled microreactor, called Antares R1, to verify core neutronics and thermal hydraulics.
Nano Nuclear Energy of New York will collaborate with Idaho National Laboratory (INL) to evaluate the novel heat exchanger design of Zeus, its modular microreactor, through computational modelling and sensitivity analysis.
Missouri-based Sigma-Aldrich will work with INL to begin to standardize test methods for detecting oxide impurities in salts to prevent corrosion issues in molten salt nuclear reactors and other high-temperature industrial applications.
The DOE also announced this week that it had awarded 19 Nuclear Science User Facilities Rapid Turnaround Experiment (RTE) projects totalling approximately $1m (€900,000).
The awards were granted to 19 principal investigators from different institutions including universities and industry. Each project supports the advancement of nuclear energy.
The DOE said these RTE projects aim to improve the understanding of material behaviour under irradiation, which is crucial for the development of more resilient materials for nuclear applications.
Research topics covered by the awards include irradiation effects on high entropy carbide ceramics, multi-principal element alloys, zirconium alloys, reactor pressure vessel steels, steel cladding, ceramic-based waste forms and structural characterisation of irradiated metallic fuels.
