The Nuclear Energy Waste Transmutation Optimized Now SBIR/STTR (NEWTON SBIR/STTR) program will support the research and development of technologies that enable the transmutation of used nuclear fuel (UNF) to alleviate the impact of storage in permanent disposal facilities. This program seeks to fund the development of novel technologies that increase the overall capacity factor, power output, and efficiency of particle generation systems (including but not limited to proton, neutron, and/or photon), by reducing beam trip magnitude and duration (referred to as loss of beam). Additional technologies will focus on increasing the throughput of transmutation by developing target materials that maximize transmutation rates and are easily processible to remove the transmuted material.
The program will have three categories:
Category A: Technologies related to the generation and acceleration of particle beams that can initiate transmutation reactions. Development of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) algorithms to predict and recover from beam trip events is also within scope.
Category B: Modelling, designing, and fabricating target materials for the enhancement of transmutation of UNF component elements or isotopes, technologies on incorporation methods for transmutable materials into a target, and technologies for processing the transmuted material for waste packaging or isolation of valuable products
Category C: Integration of the technologies developed in Categories A and B into a techno-economic analysis (TEA) of a transmutation facility, improving the performance of the entire system. Category C teams will also maintain a materials and components database for transmutation facilities, which will include nuclear data sets.
Applicants can apply to Category A only, Category B only, a combination of Categories A and B, or Category C only, based on their expertise