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Advanced Nuclear Reactor Projects To Receive USD 3.5 Million From DOE

By David Dalton
3 July 2013

3 Jul (NucNet): General Atomics, GE Hitachi, Gen4 Energy and Westinghouse will receive 3.5 million US dollars (2.68 million euros) for four projects that “go beyond the traditional light water design”, the US department for energy has said.

The financial support, which will be offered with a 20 percent private cost share, is part of President Barack Obama’s plan for reducing pollution from fossil fuel power plants and developing clean energy technologies, announced last week.

The DOE said the projects will address “key technical challenges” to designing, building and operating the next generation of nuclear reactors.

The four projects chosen to receive the funds are:

• General Atomics (California): research on silicon carbide, which can be used for fuel rod cladding.

• GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy (North Carolina): high temperature insulation materials for design and manufacturing of electromagnetic pumps for liquid-metal-cooled reactors.

• Gen4 Energy (Colorado): R&D on natural circulation designs for advanced nuclear reactors that use a lead bismuth coolant.

• Westinghouse Electric Company (Pennsylvania): analysis on sodium thermal hydraulics to support advanced nuclear reactor design, especially sodium-cooled designs.

Energy secretary Ernest Moniz said public-private research in advanced nuclear reactors will help accelerate American leadership in the next generation of nuclear energy technologies and enable low-carbon nuclear power to be “a significant contributor” to the US economy.

There are three nuclear reactors under construction in the US – Watts Bar-2 in Tennessee, Vogtle-3 in Georgia and Virgil C. Summer-2 in South Carolina.

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