The U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) has granted Stony Brook University three million four hundred thousand dollars. This is one of eleven nationwide projects seeking to increase the deployment of nuclear power as a reliable source of clean energy and limit the amount of waste produced from Advanced Nuclear Reactors (AR).
Jason Trelewicz is an associate professor in the Department of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering in the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences. He is the leader of the new project funded by the DoE. It is hoped that the project will significantly reduce AR waste burden via improved fuel utilization and reduced uranium loading.
The Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) funds important energy related projects in the U.S. The “Optimizing Nuclear Waste and Advanced Reactor Disposal Systems” (ONWARDS) program will develop technologies that can help resolve the waste and storage challenges associated AR fuel cycles. The DoE awarded thirty-six million dollars to eleven projects that will collaborate to reduce nuclear waste, support safe and sustainable domestic fuel stocks, and advance the U.S.’ clean energy portfolio.
Trelewicz said “This is a particularly exciting project as it directly addresses one of the Achilles’ heels of advanced nuclear fission as a baseload energy source – spent nuclear fuel and the long-term disposition of high-level waste. Under the ONWARDS program, our team’s research combines novel fuel and waste forms with a comprehensive systems approach for improving fuel utilization and reducing uranium loading to enable economically attractive fission power with minimal compact reactor waste burden.”
ONWARDS was unveiled last year as its first program was launched to identify and facilitate technologies for AR used nuclear fuel (UNF) recycling, waste forms, UNF disposal pathways and associated advanced safeguards technologies.
U.S. Representative Lee Zeldin said, “Stony Brook University is leading the way in so many fields that are strengthening our nation. This initiative is no different, developing a comprehensive new approach to better understand the performance of new fuel and waste forms and ultimately reduce nuclear waste more efficiently than even state-of-the-art technologies. The December 2020 appropriations legislation I strongly supported will pay for this critical research.”
Nuclear power is a reliable source of energy in the U.S. It is also the largest domestic source of clean energy, and it provides about half of the U.S.’ carbon-free energy. That amounts of about one fifth of all U.S. electricity. Nuclear power production, however, produces radioactive waste which must be disposed of by safely storing it in a permanent repository. Mitigating these waste and storage concerns will support the goals outlined in U.S. President Joe Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to support the equitable expansion of the nation’s clear energy sources, including nuclear energy.
U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm said, “Developing novel approaches to safely manage nuclear waste will enable us to power even more homes and businesses in America with carbon-free nuclear energy,” said U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm. “ARPA-E is doing just that by supporting companies and universities that are working on next-generation technologies to modernize advanced reactors and strengthen the nation’s clean energy enterprise.”