The U.S. federal government has been increasing its support for research into the next generations of nuclear power reactors. The Department of Energy (DoE) has just announced that it has awarded more than sixty-five million dollars for the nuclear energy research. They will fund ninety-three advanced nuclear projects in 28 states. The U.S. Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette announced the new commitment during a visit to the Idaho National Laboratory in Idaho Falls Thursday. These new awards fall under the DoE Nuclear Energy University Program (NEUP) The Nuclear Energy Enabling Technologies (NEET) and the Nuclear Science User Facilities (NSUF).
    Brouillette said, “Advancing the next generation of nuclear energy is paramount to ensuring reliable, clean electricity for the American people. If we are serious about making substantial progress in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, then emissions-free nuclear energy must be a part of that conversation. The Trump Administration recognizes the importance of nuclear energy, and through these 93 projects spread across 28 different states, we remain wholly committed to revitalizing our most reliable form of energy.”
    Dr. Rita Baranwal is the Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy at the DoE. She said that the department is committed to making certain the nuclear researchers have cutting edge infrastructure and laboratory faciliites to develop advanced nuclear technologies. She also said, “Investments in programs like these help strengthen American leadership in nuclear innovation by supporting the development of the next generation of talent.”
    The DoE is providing more than thirty-eight million, six hundred thousand dollars through NEUP to support fifty seven projects in nuclear energy research and development at university laboratories. NEUP wants to maintain U.S. leadership in nuclear research across the U.S. by providing top science and engineering faculty and their students at U.S. universities with opportunities to develop innovative technologies and solutions for expanding civilian nuclear capability.
     In addition, twenty-one university-led projects will receive five million, seven hundred thousand dollars for research reactors and infrastructure improvements. These grants will provide important safety, performance and student education-related upgrades to some U.S. university research reactors as well as enhancing university research and training infrastructure.
     The DoE also awarded ten million, eight hundred thousand for three Integrated Research Projects (IRPs). These projects will address well-defined but highly complex technical issues impacting key Office of Nuclear Energy (ONE) mission objectives. They will be executed by university-led consortiums that usually include multiple universities, industrial and international research entities and the unique and extensive resources of the DoE National Laboratories. IRPs comprise a significant element of DoE’s innovative nuclear research objectives and illustrates ONE’s strategy to pursue R&D solutions most directly relevant to the near-term, significant needs of the ONE R&D programs.
     Five research and development projects led by DoE National Laboratories and U.S. universities will get five million dollars in funding for conducting research to address crosscutting nuclear energy challenges. This work will help improve advanced sensors and instrumentation and advanced manufacturing methods for multiple nuclear reactor plant and fuel applications.
     DoE has chosen one industry, three DoE National Laboratories and three university-led projects that will take advantage of NSUF capabilities to investigate important nuclear fuel and material applications. DoE will finance two of the projects with a total of one million dollars in funds. All seven of these projects will be supported with over two million, two hundred thousand dollars in facility access costs and expertise for experimental neutron and ion irradiation testing, post-irradiation examination facilities, synchrotron beamline capabilities and technical assistance for design and analysis of experiments through NSUF. In addition, one of the NEUP R&D projects mentioned above will receive one million, six hundred thousand dollars in NSUF access funds.
     Including these new awards, the DoE’s ONE has now granted more than eight hundred million dollars to support U.S. leadership in clean energy innovation and to train the next generation of nuclear engineers and scientists through its competitive opportunities since 2009.