“Safe, clean nuclear power will play a critical role in helping the United States and the world reduce and eliminate energy-related emissions,” said ARPA-E director Evelyn N. Wang. “Transmutation could shorten the timeline for UNF disposal by thousands of years, which represents a transformational solution for generations to come.”
NEWTON: The funding opportunity announcement is part of ARPA-E’s Nuclear Energy Waste Transmutation Optimized Now (NEWTON) program, which seeks to develop technologies that enable transmutation, the process of an isotope being converted to a different isotope or element through a nuclear reaction. NEWTON aims to enable the economic viability of transmutation at a scale that will significantly reduce the mass, volume, activity, and effective half-life of the existing stockpile of commercial UNF.
There are three key objectives of the program:
To develop technologies related to the generation and acceleration of particle beams that can initiate transmutation reactions.
To identify solutions related to modeling, designing, and fabricating target materials for transmutation of UNF; incorporating transmutable materials into a target; and processing transmuted material for waste or isolation.
To integrate the technologies developed in the first two categories into a techno-economic analysis and life-cycle assessment of a transmutation facility and maintain a materials and components database for transmutation facilities.
NEWTON continues ARPA-E’s work to develop ways to address spent fuel through its CURIE and ONWARDS programs, which focus on the recycling of UNF into fuel for advanced reactors.
For details: More information about NEWTON is available on the ARPA-E eXCHANGE website, including key guidelines and dates for applicants (the deadline for concept papers is August 16). The NEWTON program description can be downloaded here.
