U.S. Energy Department Awards $36 Million to Lower Nuclear Reactor Waste

The U.S. Energy Department announced funding for 11 projects aimed at expanding the deployment, and use of, nuclear power as a clean energy source, and cutting the amount of waste produced from advanced reactors. The projects will be funded through the department’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) will develop technologies that can resolve the waste and storage challenges associated with AR fuel cycles. Addressing nuclear waste and storage issues will support the goal of the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to support the expansion of nuclear power as a clean energy source.

As part of ARPA-E’s “Optimizing Nuclear Waste and Advanced Reactor Disposal Systems” initiative, the agency will fund projects focused on technologies that can solve waste and storage challenges associated with advanced reactor fuel cycles. Project teams will also promote the safe and sustainable storage of domestic fuels and advance the country’s clean energy portfolio.

One of the main objectives of the department’s supply chain report, issued in response to an executive order signed in February, is to foster the development of advanced reactor technology fuels and improve waste management options. The order also called for the development of an integrated waste disposal strategy with an initial focus on a consent-based siting process for the provisional, combined storage of spent nuclear fuel.