The Department of Energy’s National Reactor Innovation Center (NRIC) and Purdue University’s Applied Research Institute have agreed to work together on new technologies aimed at lowering construction costs.
The collaboration will take place under NRIC’s Advanced Construction Technology Initiative, a program designed to demonstrate advanced reactor construction technologies and techniques, according to DOE’s Nov. 5 press release. The construction demonstration project itself will take place at Purdue University in Indiana.
NRIC, located at Idaho National Laboratory, said in the release this project will “demonstrate the construction of a scaled, steel-plate composite containment vessel and reactor building to generate real-world data on its constructability, quality and performance for future small modular reactor deployment.”
BWX Technologies completed the C$80 million (US$56 million) expansion of its manufacturing facility in Cambridge, Ontario, the company said Thursday.
Under the project, BWXT added 55,000 square feet, brought in more advanced manufacturing machinery and enlarged its nuclear clean room, according to its press release. The company said this project now allows it to manufacture large-scale reactor components for all reactor sizes. BWXT began expanding the facility in 2024.
“It [the expansion project] is a major step to solidify our company’s place in the global nuclear resurgence,” John MacQuarrie, president of BWXT’s commercial operations, said. “By increasing our manufacturing capacity in Cambridge, we are helping ensure we have the industrial capability needed to support major nuclear projects, strengthen energy security, advance climate goals and compete in a growing global market.”
Nuclear fuel recycling company Project Omega said this week it has raised $80 million in its Series A financing round.
The company, which came onto the scene earlier this year, said in a Monday press release that the Series A financing round was led by B Capital along with noa VC, 645 Ventures and other investors. Project Omega intends to use this recent funding to refine certain aspects for its recycling technologies and for a pilot facility.
Over the past eight months, Project Omega has been developing its non-aqueous recycling technology with two of the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Wash.
The Department of Energy’s Office of Science recently awarded $8.5 million across 28 projects under its Innovation Network for Fusion Energy (INFUSE) program.
According to DOE’s Nov. 2 press release, the selected 28 projects have 17 by DOE’s national laboratories and 11 by universities, with 22 including commercial partners. DOE said these projects are aimed to progress research efforts to help bring fusion energy to the commercial market sooner.
DOE said the INFUSE program, “solicited proposals from the fusion industry and selected projects for one- or two-year awards, with total funding of $8.5 million and individual project budgets ranging from $100,000 to $500,000.”The program was created to bring private-public partnerships together to expedite the commercialization of fusion in the United States.
