DOE announces investment of over $35 million toward national labs

The Department of Energy announced recently it will provide over $35 million toward 42 projects with aims to advance emerging energy technologies at DOE national laboratories related to nuclear energy and artificial intelligence.

The awards were made through DOE’s Technology Commercialization Fund, which has a program in fiscal 2025 called the Core Laboratory Infrastructure for Market Readiness Lab Call (CLIMR). The program aims to improve the United States’ energy competitiveness globally, the agency said. 

The funding would total more than $57.5 million, as the projects would also leverage a cost-share of over $21 million from private and public partners.

The projects involving DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy that would receive the funding take place at the following labs and partnering labs:

• Idaho National Laboratory, which is working to potentially reduce nuclear power plant operation and maintenance costs using artificial intelligence
• Los Alamos National Laboratory, which is partnering with Idaho to develop a self-guided training platform for programmers at Idaho
• Sandia National Laboratories, which is working on fusion
• Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories, which is working on using lasers to eventually produce the isotopes needed for high-assay, low-enriched uranium
• Oak Ridge National Laboratory, which would work to strengthen alloy for molten salt reactors
• Argonne National Laboratory, which is working on a simulator of a liquid metal-cooled fast reactor and is also working on code to accelerate design for nuclear reactors.