GAIN Voucher Opportunity Announced for Advanced Reactor Startups

According to the voucher program notice, “DOE anticipates awarding as many as 20 vouchers, each with value of approximately $50K – $500K contingent upon Congressional appropriation …. Requests for awards larger than $500K may be considered in cases where there is a clear need involving a truly exceptional innovation or technology.”  The notice indicates that applications should focus on the following topic areas:

• Analysis and evaluation of, and for, advanced reactor concepts and associated designs, including development of licensing information or strategies;

• Structural material and component development, testing, and qualification;

• Advanced nuclear fuel development, fabrication, and testing (includes fuel materials and cladding);

• Development, testing, and qualification of instrumentation, controls, and sensor technologies that are hardened for harsh environments and secured against cyber intrusion;

• Modeling and simulation, high-performance computing, codes, and methods; and

• Technical assistance from subject matter experts and/or data/information to support technology development and/or confirm key technical or licensing issues.

Detailed eligibility requirements are discussed in the program notice.  Among other things, the FOA requires that the applicants be small businesses that are U.S. based or have majority U.S. citizen or permanent resident ownership, and that operate primarily in the U.S.  In addition, as is customary, the program notice states that “[p]roducts embodying intellectual property developed under the assistance must be substantially manufactured in the U.S.”

Letters of intent are not required but strongly encouraged, and are due by March 9, 2017.  The requests for assistance themselves can be submitted between March 13 and April 10, 2017, and awards should be announced around mid-May.  At a recent advanced reactor conference held at Argonne National Laboratories, and at the Platts Nuclear Energy conference in Washington, DC, the DOE made specific mention of this opportunity and emphasized its interest in making DOE facilities available to advanced reactor startups through the GAIN initiative.

Authored by Amy Roma and Sachin Desai.