U.S. Department of Energy Selects 8 Nuclear Fuel R&D Projects

en.Wedoany.com Reported - On October 29, the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) of the U.S. Department of Energy selected 8 transuranic nuclear fuel R&D projects, with planned total funding of approximately $44.9 million, covering technical routes including metallic fuel, nitride fuel, molten salt fuel, and TRISO particle fuel. Selected institutions include Westinghouse Electric, Oregon State University, Idaho National Laboratory, and several nuclear energy technology companies. The projects are included in the HORNIG R&D program.

In this funding round, Westinghouse Electric, Oregon State University, and Idaho National Laboratory each received project allocations of $7 million. Westinghouse Electric will develop laser powder bed fusion processes for manufacturing metallic nuclear fuel; Oregon State University will use low-temperature processes to manufacture nitride fuel containing recovered transuranic elements; Idaho National Laboratory's IMPACT project will develop and test chloride fuel salt containing transuranic elements for molten salt reactors.

Standard Nuclear received a project allocation of approximately $7 million to develop mixed oxycarbide TRISO fuel using recovered transuranic elements and uranium feedstock, targeting high-temperature gas-cooled reactors. Oklo received approximately $6.843 million for the FORGE project to develop uranium-transuranic-zirconium metallic fuel suitable for sodium-cooled reactors.

Texas A&M University received approximately $5.378 million to develop and test thorium-based liquid molten salt fuel containing recovered transuranic elements. Sandia National Laboratories received approximately $3.381 million to conduct scale-up production decision analysis for related fuel schemes. Exodys Energy received approximately $1.301 million to study transuranic fuel feedstock, fuel cycle costs, transportation and deployment requirements, and to establish a unified assessment framework across projects.

The HORNIG program was launched in April 2026, with overall planned support of up to $50 million. ARPA-E's R&D goals include improving nuclear fuel manufacturing processes, performance testing and qualification procedures, and shortening the qualification cycle for new fuels for advanced reactors to within 7 years. The selected projects cover stages including fuel production technology development, experimental testing, and deployment condition assessment.