DEAR0001614

Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Competitive Agreement, under FOA number DE-FOA-0002530 (onwards) with project title "Pioneering a Cermet Waste Form for Disposal of Waste Streams from Advanced Reactors (PACE-FORWARD)".

The PACE-FORWARD program aims to develop and demonstrate (TRL 6) a high-density, durable cermet waste form (WF) suitable to immobilize all forms of advanced reactor (AR) wastes, thus significantly reducing processing complexity and cost.

The proposed WF will exhibit high waste loading (=70 vol.%) and immobilize multiple waste streams, including metal, salt (halide), and oxides from molten salt fueled or metallic fueled reactors; or metal + 14C/carbide waste from reprocessing of TRISO (tri-structural isotropic) fuel particles.

The State University Of New Jersey Rutgers

THE PROGRAM GOAL OF ONWARDS IS TO SUPPORT THE DEVELOPMENT OF TECHNOLOGIES THAT ADDRESS SIGNIFICANT CHALLENGES TO CLOSING THE BACK-END OF ADVANCED REACTOR (AR) NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLES. SPECIFICALLY, PROJECTS FUNDED UNDER THE ONWARDS PROGRAM WILL DEVELOP AND DEMONSTRATE SUSTAINABLE TECHNOLOGIES THAT WILL SIGNIFICANTLY IMPROVE THE DISPOSAL IMPACT OF USED NUCLEAR FUEL (UNF) AND OTHER WASTE STREAMS STEMMING FROM THE IMPLEMENTATION OF AR FUEL CYCLES BY DEVELOPING INNOVATIVE AND COST-EFFECTIVE APPROACHES IN REPROCESSING, MATERIAL ACCOUNTANCY, AND WASTE FORMS. ONWARDS METRICS INCLUDE AN ORDER-OF-MAGNITUDE REDUCTION IN AR WASTE VOLUME GENERATION OR REPOSITORY FOOTPRINT COMPARED TO LIGHT-WATER NUCLEAR REACTORS (LWR), BETTER THAN 1% FISSILE-MASS ACCOUNTANCY IN REPROCESSING STREAMS, DEVELOPMENT OF HIGH-PERFORMANCE AR WASTE FORMS FOR A VARIETY OF POTENTIAL DEEP-GEOLOGICAL REPOSITORIES (DGR) AND DISPOSAL CONCEPTS, AND COSTS IN THE RANGE OF $1/MEGAWATT-HOUR (MWH).

81.135 - Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy

Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E) [DOE]

New Brunswick, New Jersey United States

City-Wide

Optimizing Nuclear Waste and Advanced Reactor Disposal Systems (ONWARDS) (DE-FOA-0002530)

Amendment Since initial award the End Date has been extended from 07/14/25 to 04/14/27 and the total obligations have increased 19% from $2,799,595 to $3,329,595.