24. ADVANCED TECHNOLOGIES FOR NUCLEAR ENERGY
Nuclear power provides over 20 percent of the U.S. electricity supply without emitting harmful air pollutants, including those that may cause adverse global climate changes. New methods and technologies are needed to address key issues that affect the future deployment of nuclear energy and to preserve the U.S. leadership in nuclear technology and engineering, while enhancing nuclear proliferation resistance. This topic addresses several of these key technology areas: improvements in nuclear reactor technology for existing reactors and evolutionary designs, advanced instrumentation and control (I&C) for very high temperature reactor applications, advanced I&C for use in high radiation environments for Generation IV reactor designs, and advanced techniques for spent-reactor-fuel separations technology and devices.
Grant applications are sought only in the following subtopics:
a. New Technology for Improved Nuclear Energy Systems—Improvements
and advances are needed for reactor systems and component technologies that
ultimately would be used in the design, construction, or operation of existing
and future nuclear power plants and Generation IV nuclear power systems [see
references]. Grant
applications are sought: (1) to
improve and optimize the nuclear power plant and its systems, along with
component instrumentation and
control, by developing and improving the reliability of advanced
instrumentation, thermocouples, sensors, controls, and by increasing the
accuracy of measuring of key reactor and plant parameters; (2) to improve
monitoring of plant equipment performance and aging, using improved diagnostic
techniques for in-service and non-destructive examinations; (3) for advanced
instrumentation, sensors, and controls for very high temperature Generation IV
reactor designs that can withstand temperatures in excess of 1000° C; (4) for
advanced instrumentation, sensors, and controls for very high irradiation
environments that will be encountered in advanced evolutionary and Generation IV
reactor designs; and (5) to develop light-water-reactor, spent-reactor-fuel
separations technology and devices that are compatible with the UREX+ process
[see reference 6] and allow for fission product separation of highly
radioactive, low-atomic-mass isotopes from spent transuranic and minor actinide
wastes (e.g. Pu, Np, Am, Cm, etc) without explicit plutonium separation in order
to enhance proliferation resistance, as required for the GNEP and
Grant applications that address the following areas of investigation are NOT of interest and will be declined: concepts for complete or partial reactor plant designs; generalized thermal-hydraulics analysis (e.g. CFD or two-fluid codes) and probabilistic risk assessment tools or methods; nuclear power plant security, or building/containment enhancements; and NRC safety experiments, testing, licensing, and site permit issues.
In addition, grant applications that deal with nuclear materials, irradiation effects, chemistry, and/or corrosion research are also not of interest for this topic and should be submitted instead under Topic 16. Furthermore, grant applications that involve advanced reactor/core computer simulation methods including: (a) reactor/core computer simulation methods for existing light water reactor designs, and (b) advanced reactor design model code development; coupled/parallel thermal-hydraulic-reactor physics tools; safety and performance evaluation methods; ab initio nuclear cross section/data methods and engineering calculations for new Generation IV reactor designs, reactors, major reactor components, and reactor core and fuel assemblies should be submitted under Topic 35 directly.
Questions - contact Madeline Feltus (madeline.feltus@nuclear.energy.gov)
References:
1. What’s News, U.S. DOE Office of Nuclear Energy, home page, http://www.nuclear.gov
2. Generation IV Nuclear Energy Systems, Office of Nuclear Energy, http://gen-iv.ne.doe.gov/
3. Nuclear Energy Research Initiative (NERI), Office of Nuclear Energy, Science and Technology, http://neri.ne.doe.gov
4. Nuclear Energy Plant Optimization (NEPO), Office of Nuclear Energy, Science and Technology, http://nepo.ne.doe.gov/
5.
Miller,
D. W., et al., “
6. Advanced Fuel Cycle Initiative (AFCI) Annual Report 2003, (Available at: http://nuclear.gov/reports/AFCIAnnualRpt03.pdf
7.
Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP), U. S.
Department of Energy, http://www.gnep.energy.gov/
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