Next Generation Nuclear
Rachel Slaybaugh
Nuclear Annual Meeting 14 Jan 2020 ARPA-E: Changing the Trajectory
There is a real opportunity to put AR development on new learning curves ARPA-E Nuclear Fission Landscape
Program/Cohort Budget Teams OPEN+ Fission MEITNER ~$30M 9 MEITNER Resource Team ~$10M 1
OPEN + Fission ~$12M 5 MEITNER LISE ~$8M 4 RT GEMINA ~$35M TBD MEITNER
GEMINA LISE Multiple groups of fission teams, all managed together to achieve economically viable nuclear power
2 Making Reactors People Want to Buy
With New ID Metric Units State-of-the-Art Technology
1 Overnight construction cost $/We 2-7 < 2 2 On-site construction time Months > 60 < 24 Total staffing level 3 FTE/GW 450-750 < 50 (on-site & off-site) e
Emergency planning zone 4 Miles 10 and 50 0 (EPZ)
Time before human response 5 Days 3 > 30 required for an accident
6 Onsite backup power kWe > 0 kW 0 Ramp rate without steam power 7a 5% > 5% bypass capacity/min 7b Process heat temperature ºC N/A > 500
3 Development Ecosystem
Public funding vehicles: • Office of Nuclear Energy NE • ARPA-E ARPA-E • LEEP programs • Office of Science (computing) TRL • NNSA (fuel)
Leveraging National Labs
Private funding: • Cost share • Internal R&D • Venture • Philanthropic
4 What We’re Really Doing?
Trying to get the broader innovation ecosystem to engage with nuclear energy
5 What Makes an Ideal Program Director?
Thought Leadership • Represents ARPA-E as a thought leader in the program area
Program Development • Dives into a topic, solicits input from stakeholders in R&D • Presents and defends program concept in climate of constructive criticism ARPA-E is hiring To apply or learn more, Active Project Management please contact an ARPA-E • Actively manages portfolio projects from merit reviews Program Director or email through project completion [email protected]. • Work with expert colleagues and data-driven decision- making to support the full lifecycle of management
Qualifications • Has broad R&D experience, intellectual integrity and flexibility, commitment to energy, communication skills, leadership and management If it works… will it matter?
7 MEITNER Motivation
‣ A substantial reduction of construction cost, O&M cost, and construction time is required ‣ We often only focus on the nuclear core, despite the fact that this may not drive these factors ‣ Early design choices throughout the entire system impact the rest of the system in terms of functionality, cost, and constructability ‣ ARPA-E targeted development of enabling technologies that require understanding the inter-relatedness of design choices ‣ Sets up success in many futures
8 MEITNER Objective
Identify, characterize, and develop enabling technologies that support moving existing advanced reactor designs from concept to products that are:
• “Walkaway” safe • Quickly deployable • Safeguardable • Cost competitive • Commercially viable
9 Our Teams Tackle Key Areas
Microreactor Construction Safety
Load Following
Components
10 Resource Team Provides Extra Boost
Team (mostly) in the laboratory complex provides specialized, high-value capabilities
1. Modeling & Simulation
2. Subject Matter Experts
3. Techno-Economic Analysis
Result: leverage U.S. national resources for strategic technology improvement and economics feedback into design
11 Market Study re Load Following (RT TEA)
Study to assist MEITNER DTs to understand in quantitative terms (e.g. $/MW and $/MWh) the value that a reactor with flexible power output could earn from grid operators
1. Identify market mechanisms for capturing the value of flexibility/reliability 2. Identify the required performance attributes of “flexible” reactors 3. Identify alternative forms of providing system flexibility apart from flexible reactors 4. Model selected ISO scenarios with PROMOD (specialized power system software) 5. Prepare report and deliver presentations 6. Discuss findings and design implications one-on-one with MEITNER participants
12 OPEN+ 2018: Nuclear Cohort
• First time creating “cohorts” to focus on particular topics in energy where ARPA-E sees significant opportunities to innovate and create new communities
• This first cohort focuses on ways to enable advanced nuclear energy by overcoming challenges in high performance materials science
13 OPEN+ 2018: Five Teams, $11.7M Fed
• CMU: Additive manufacturing of spacer grids for nuclear reactors • LBNL: MEMS RF accelerators for nuclear energy and advanced manufacturing • LANL: Advanced manufacturing of embedded heat pipe nuclear hybrid reactor • MIT: Multimetallic layered composites for rapid, economical advanced reactor deployment • UW-Madison: Accelerated materials design for molten salt tech. using innovative high-throughput methods
14 Leveraging Innovations Supporting nuclear Energy (LISE) ‣ It is clear that a substantial reduction of construction cost, O&M cost, and construction time, in combination with targeting reactor plant operation for commercial viability, is required to fundamentally enhance the competitiveness and attractiveness of nuclear energy ‣ The ARPA-E MEITNER Program is already investigating several innovative technologies that forward this goal ‣ But the problem is large ‣ LISE teams complement the MEITNER teams to round out the portfolio for enabling technologies
15 LISE: Four Teams $7.5M Fed
‣ NC State University: A data-driven approach to high precision construction and reduced overnight cost and schedule ‣ Southern Research Institute: Machine learning for automated maintenance of future MSR ‣ National Energy Technology Laboratory: Distributed nuclear reactor core monitoring with single-crystal harsh-environment optical fibers ‣ Idaho National Laboratory: Next-generation metal fuel
16 Generating Electricity Managed by Intelligent Nuclear Assets: GEMINA
17 18 GEMINA Objective
ARPA-E aims to develop the tools and cost basis for ARs to achieve fixed O&M costs of $2/MWh without shifting costs to other parts of LCOE. ARPA-E intends this program to be iterative in nature, where designs and tools are improved as new information is gained, research questions are answered, and costs are estimated. Awardee teams will develop the following for one or more of the most promising AR designs: 1. Digital twins for advanced LCOE and Fixed O&M reactor systems 90 2. Relevant cyber physical 80 Fixed O&M Total LCOE systems 70 3. O&M approaches for 60 50 advanced reactors 40
4. Cost models and design MWh/ $ 30 updates 20 10 0 Advanced CC Current Gen III+ Advanced Nuclear Nuclear Nuclear *GEMINA DE-FOA-0002174 Sect. I.C (Program Objectives)