The aim of this ARPA-E program is to make a transformational change to the current state-of-the-art and improve advanced reactor (AR) designs with operations and maintenance (O&M) in mind. Advances in autonomous, efficient, and low-cost systems O&M are occurring in many industrial sectors, largely powered by artificial intelligence (AI), advanced data analytics, distributed computing, powerful physics simulation tools, and other technical breakthroughs. To date, little of this advancement has been adopted by the nuclear energy industry. There is a crucial need to design and execute extremely robust and low-cost operations and maintenance procedures for ARs.
Most analysts conclude that the low-carbon electricity grids of the future will be most easily and economically achieved by including firm low-carbon resources such as nuclear energy. However, existing light water nuclear power plants are facing the significant challenge of having comparatively high fixed O&M costs and new builds of large light water reactors (LWRs) have historically been drastically over schedule and budget in the U.S. and Western Europe. Advanced reactors offer a compelling solution option as they can provide enhanced flexibility, a range of power generation outputs, lower capital costs and shorter construction schedules, high temperatures for industrial heating use, and strong safety cases. For a decarbonized future, we need to ensure that AR construction and operating costs are competitive and the plants are flexible to operate.
To accomplish this goal, ARPA-E seeks interdisciplinary teams to develop digital twins (DTs), or a technology with similar capability, for an AR design as the foundation of the team’s O&M strategy. The digital twins (or equivalent) and associated O&M approaches the teams will develop will include diverse technologies that are driving efficiencies in other industries, such as AI, advanced control systems, predictive maintenance, and model-based fault detection. Because ARs are still in design phases, with no physical units operating, teams working on core operations will also develop cyber-physical systems (CPS) that simulate advanced reactor plant operating dynamics using a combination of non-nuclear experimental facilities (e.g., flow loops) and software. Teams will use these systems as the “real asset,” a surrogate upon which developers can test their DT platforms for operations and maintenance. CPS may also provide validation data for regimes for conditions with high uncertainty. Teams focusing on activities outside the reactor core are encouraged to identify appropriate test systems and data. ARPA-E will also support research for filling specific technical gaps to enable the O&M strategies. This program lays the basis for a future where ARs operate with a staffing plan and fixed O&M costs more akin to that of a combined cycle natural gas plant than that of the legacy LWR fleet.