The US Department of Energy (DOE) will award up to $24 million in funding for 10 projects as part of a new Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) program: Modeling-Enhanced Innovations Trailblazing Nuclear Energy Reinvigoration ( MEITNER ). MEITNER teams will identify and develop innovative technologies that enable designs for lower cost, safer, advanced nuclear reactors. Nuclear power generates nearly 20% of US electricity, delivering reliable, low-emission baseload power to the grid. These plants are all conventional light water reactors (LWR), the technology of which has evolved steadily over time. As utilities have begun retiring older plants, however, comparatively high costs have made it difficult to justify building new nuclear power plants. The low volume of new plant construction combined with expected retirements of existing plants is projected to reduce US nuclear electricity capacity by 20.8 GW by 2050. For nuclear energy to contribute in the coming decades, the next […]