Idaho National Laboratory Archives

Advanced Nuclear First Mover Initiative: Ready, set, grow

The National Association of State Energy Officials (NASEO) partnered with the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Gateway for Accelerated Innovation in Nuclear (GAIN) to launch the Advanced Nuclear First Movers Initiative. The Initiative, directed by state energy offices, is led by state co-chairs New York, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee and Wyoming, and the participating states Louisiana, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Utah, Virginia and West Virginia.
INL serves as the GAIN integrator for NE for a reason, said Jess Gehin, associate laboratory director for Nuclear Science and Technology at INL. “INL’s significant experience in leading nuclear energy R&D programs made it the ideal choice to head the GAIN initiative and work with other national laboratories on GAIN’s mission.”

Celebrating a Decade of Innovation: The Gateway for Accelerated Innovation in Nuclear

GAIN was created in 2015 to “provide the nuclear community with a single point of access to the broad range of capabilities — people, facilities, materials and data — across the DOE complex and its national laboratory capabilities.”

INL serves as the GAIN integrator for NE for a reason, said Jess Gehin, associate laboratory director for Nuclear Science and Technology at INL. “INL’s significant experience in leading nuclear energy R&D programs made it the ideal choice to head the GAIN initiative and work with other national laboratories on GAIN’s mission.”

Heat Exchanger Evaluation, NuCube Energy

NuCube will partner with Idaho National Laboratory (INL) to receive assistance in computational analysis of the heat exchanger design. INL has developed a code to optimize high temperature heat exchangers for both installation and operating costs and has validated that code for conventional shell and tube heat exchangers. This analysis will allow NuCube to assess the performance of the heat exchanger and support an optimized design prior to finalization of the detailed design and fabrication to support a demonstration project.

Independent Verification and Benchmark of Deep Fission’s Deep Borehole Microreactor Thermal Hydraulic System Behavior, Deep Fission

Deep Fission will partner with Idaho National Laboratory (INL) to enhance its thermal hydraulics infrastructure using RELAP5-3D modeling. INL has unique expertise in developing thermomechanical and thermos-hydro-mechanical models in deep geological repositories for used nuclear fuel and geothermal applications involving deep hole drilling and heat extraction.

GAIN helped Kentucky clear the runway for nuclear energy. Now the coal-dependent state is waiting for the plane to land

August 27, 2024 – Kenya Stump, an executive with the Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet for over 17 years, has seen the volatility of coal as an energy source: shrinking demand, plant closures, job losses and tougher pollution controls.

Test Vehicle Development to Support Oklo’s Advanced Fuels Roadmap, Oklo

Oklo, Inc. (Santa Clara, CA) will partner with Idaho National Laboratory to complete pre-conceptual design work of an experimental test device that will be used in its first Aurora fast reactor to support irradiation testing of advanced fuels and materials.

Investigation of Spark Plasma Sintering (SPS) Process Development for Graphite Neutron Moderator Production, Element Factory

Element Factory, LLC (Cheyenne, WY) will work with Idaho National Laboratory to ensure that graphite components will meet technical and regulatory requirements for use in nuclear reactors when they are produced through their novel process that uses different carbon sources.

Independent Code-to-Code Verification of Aalo-1 Fuel and Core Performance, Aalo Atomics

Aalo will partner with Idaho National Laboratory (INL) to perform independent analyses on fuel performance using the BISON code as well as thermal-hydraulics using RELAP5-3D. This work will support the independent code-to-code verification to support Aalo’s future licensing efforts.

PIE-Enabled Study of Aqueous Corrosion & Zr Hydriding in Cr-Coated Cladding, Westinghouse

The objective of this project is to enhance understanding of aqueous corrosion and hydrogen transport for Zr hydride formation in Cr-coated claddings, as a function of the Cr-coating deposition method (cold spray (CS) or physical vapor deposition (PVD)).

Development of Cladding Protective coating for FOAK ARC-100 Facility, ARC Clean Technology

This project will support the qualification of ARC’s fuel, by demonstrating the potential use of a barrier on the cladding to prevent fuel cladding chemical interaction (FCCI).

Organization: Idaho National Laboratory