Government Grants
Business Grants
Home Owner Programs
Federal Programs
About Us
RFI - Advanced Nuclear Reactors
Request for Information - Advanced Nuclear Reactors This is a Request for Information only.
This RFI is not accepting applications for financial assistance.
The purpose of this RFI is solely to solicit input for ARPA-E consideration to inform the possible formulation of future programs.
ARPA-E
is seeking information from diverse industries about technologies that could enable advanced nuclear reactors to achieve operating cost profiles that approximate those of natural gas combined cycle plants.
This entails reducing operating costs per megawatt of electricity (MWe) at nuclear power plants by more than one order of magnitude.
Attaining this vision requires semi-autonomous nuclear power plant operations, a radical departure from traditional nuclear power plant operations.
Because autonomy is so unconventional for the nuclear sector, attacking the problem requires operational technologies and controls strategies that have limited or no technical precedent in the nuclear community.
For this reason, ARPA-E is especially interested in perspectives from outside the traditional nuclear energy space.
Today’s nuclear plants are mostly conventional light water reactors (LWRs).
Their continued viability in the U. S. electricity mix is challenged in part by high operational and maintenance (O&M) costs compared to other electricity generation types.
The higher costs stem largely from the high staffing level required for nuclear power plant operation, maintenance, safety, and security.
Advanced nuclear reactor systems that are anticipated to comprise the next generation of new reactor builds are likely to face costs that are similar to LWRs, should they not pursue new approaches to O&M.
High O&M costs might be especially burdensome for small modular reactors (SMRs) and microreactors, which do not have the benefit of economy of scale.
Much greater focus on achieving a radical reduction of O&M costs will likely prove necessary to assure the competitiveness of advanced nuclear systems.
Therefore, approaches in predictive maintenance, autonomous maintenance, fault detection and isolation algorithms, novel sensor systems, data analytics, dynamics modeling, and advanced control systems are of interest.
Also of interest are advanced modeling and simulators that allow exploration of a full range of potential data streams, and can help identify/evaluate the most relevant control algorithms and sensor needs.
Finally, test loops and experimental facilities that can be leveraged to investigate and validate approaches for autonomous controls, operations, and maintenance are of interest.
Please carefully review the REQUEST FOR INFORMATION GUIDELINES below.
Please note, in particular, that the information you provide will be used by ARPA-E solely for program planning, without attribution.
THIS IS A REQUEST FOR INFORMATION ONLY.
THIS NOTICE DOES NOT CONSTITUTE A FUNDING OPPORTUNITY ANNOUNCEMENT (FOA).
NO FOA EXISTS AT THIS TIME.
This RFI is not accepting applications for financial assistance.
The purpose of this RFI is solely to solicit input for ARPA-E consideration to inform the possible formulation of future programs.
ARPA-E
is seeking information from diverse industries about technologies that could enable advanced nuclear reactors to achieve operating cost profiles that approximate those of natural gas combined cycle plants.
This entails reducing operating costs per megawatt of electricity (MWe) at nuclear power plants by more than one order of magnitude.
Attaining this vision requires semi-autonomous nuclear power plant operations, a radical departure from traditional nuclear power plant operations.
Because autonomy is so unconventional for the nuclear sector, attacking the problem requires operational technologies and controls strategies that have limited or no technical precedent in the nuclear community.
For this reason, ARPA-E is especially interested in perspectives from outside the traditional nuclear energy space.
Today’s nuclear plants are mostly conventional light water reactors (LWRs).
Their continued viability in the U. S. electricity mix is challenged in part by high operational and maintenance (O&M) costs compared to other electricity generation types.
The higher costs stem largely from the high staffing level required for nuclear power plant operation, maintenance, safety, and security.
Advanced nuclear reactor systems that are anticipated to comprise the next generation of new reactor builds are likely to face costs that are similar to LWRs, should they not pursue new approaches to O&M.
High O&M costs might be especially burdensome for small modular reactors (SMRs) and microreactors, which do not have the benefit of economy of scale.
Much greater focus on achieving a radical reduction of O&M costs will likely prove necessary to assure the competitiveness of advanced nuclear systems.
Therefore, approaches in predictive maintenance, autonomous maintenance, fault detection and isolation algorithms, novel sensor systems, data analytics, dynamics modeling, and advanced control systems are of interest.
Also of interest are advanced modeling and simulators that allow exploration of a full range of potential data streams, and can help identify/evaluate the most relevant control algorithms and sensor needs.
Finally, test loops and experimental facilities that can be leveraged to investigate and validate approaches for autonomous controls, operations, and maintenance are of interest.
Please carefully review the REQUEST FOR INFORMATION GUIDELINES below.
Please note, in particular, that the information you provide will be used by ARPA-E solely for program planning, without attribution.
THIS IS A REQUEST FOR INFORMATION ONLY.
THIS NOTICE DOES NOT CONSTITUTE A FUNDING OPPORTUNITY ANNOUNCEMENT (FOA).
NO FOA EXISTS AT THIS TIME.
Related Programs
Advanced Research and Projects Agency - Energy Financial Assistance Program
Department of EnergyWho's Eligible
Obtain Full Opportunity Text:
ARPA-E eXCHANGE
Additional Information of Eligibility:
This is a Request for Information only.
This RFI is not accepting applications for financial assistance.
THIST NOTICE DOES NOT CONSTITUTE A FUNDING OPPORTUNITY ANNOUNCEMENT (FOA).
NO FOA EXISTS AT THIS TIME.
Full Opportunity Web Address:
https://arpa-e-foa.energy.gov
Contact:
Agency Email Description:
ARPA-E CO
Agency Email:
Date Posted:
2019-03-26
Application Due Date:
Archive Date:
2019-07-25
Social Entrepreneurship
Spotlight
Building a Million Dollar Company Where Everyone Counts
Ganesh Natarajan is the Founder and Chairman of 5FWorld, a new platform for funding and developing start-ups, social enterprises and the skills eco-system in India. In the past two decades, he has built two of India’s high-growth software services companies – Aptech and Zensar – almost from scratch to global success.
Learn How to Identify and Avoid Grant Scams
