Nuclear Energy Research Initiative & Nuclear Energy Plant Optimization

The Department of Energy (DOE) created the Nuclear Energy Research Initiative (NERI) to address and help overcome the principal technical and scientific issues affecting the future use of nuclear energy in the United States. NERI is also expected to help preserve the nuclear science and engineering infrastructure within our Nation's universities, laboratories, and industry; to advance the state of nuclear energy technology to maintain a competitive position worldwide. DOE believes that in funding creative research ideas at the Nation's science and technology institutions and companies, solutions to important nuclear issues will be realized, and a new potential for nuclear energy in the United States will emerge.

Current NERI projects in NE:

• Interfacial Transport Phenomena and Stability in Molten Metal Water Systems
• Supercritical Water Nuclear Steam Supply System: Innovations in Materials, Neutronics and Thermal-hydraulics
• Integrated Nuclear and Hydrogen-Based Energy Supply/Carrier System
• Monitoring and Control Technologies for the Secure, Transportable, Autonomous Light Water Reactor (STAR)
• Particle-Bed Gas-Cooled Fast Reactor Design (PB-GCFR)
• STAR: The Secure Transportable Autonomous Reactor System, Encapsulated Fission Heat Source
• INERI: Development of Gen IV Advanced Gas-Cooled Reactors with Hardened/Fast Neutron Spectrum
• INERI: The Numerical Nuclear Reactor for High-Fidelity Integrated Sumulation of Neutronic, Thermal-Hydraulic and Thermo-Mechanical Phenomena
• INERI: Fundamentals of Melt-Water Interfacial Transport Phenomena: Improved Understanding for Innovative Safety Technologies in ALWRs
• Coupling of High Temperature Lead-Cooled, Closed Fuel Cycle Fast Reactors to Advanced Energy Converters

The Nuclear Energy Plant Optimization (NEPO) Program is a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) research and development (R&D) program focused on performance of currently operating U.S. nuclear power plants. The primary areas of focus for the R&D program are plant aging and optimization of electrical production. The NEPO Program is also a public-private R&D partnership with equal or greater matching funds coming from industry.

NEPO projects in NE:

• Advanced Eddy Current Inspection System for the Detection and Characterization of Defects in Steam Generators
• Multivariate State Estimation Techniques (MSET) Validation