Nuclear reactors produce about 20% of the total electricity used in the U.S. Of the country’s clean electricity, nuclear energy accounts for close to 50%. Exciting new research into advanced nuclear technologies is driving interest in nuclear energy as a central pillar of U.S. efforts to combat climate change and meet rising demand for electricity.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Nuclear Energy (DOE-NE) Fast Reactor Program, led by DOE’s Argonne National Laboratory, is driving the advances. This is thanks to cutting-edge research at Argonne and other national laboratories, but also a result of historical and current collaboration with companies in the nuclear industry. Together, science and industry are providing pivotal developments in fast reactor technology.

Historically, nuclear reactors in the U.S. use Light Water Reactor (LWRs) technology, but fast reactor technology uses liquid sodium, lead or other coolants in place of water to remove the heat produced by fission. (That heat is what nuclear reactors use to create the steam that turns turbines to generate electricity.) Fast reactor technology can reuse nuclear fuel which means fast reactors can produce more fuel than they consume. Ultimately, this produces less waste. They can enable converting unused uranium (of which there is a surprising amount left in used LWR fuels) into new fuel.

“Fast reactors offer up to 60 times the fuel efficiency of light water reactors and are designed with automatic features that safely shut the reactor down in case of accident conditions,” said Kaatrin Abbott, manager of DOE-NE’s Fast Reactor Program.

Fast reactors can also make new use of used fuel that older reactor technologies discarded and have been storing securely since the 1940s.

Scientists and members of industry need to prove that this next generation of nuclear reactors merits robust federal and non-federal support. One way they do that is by preserving, developing and validating fast reactor experimental data and software to support the licensing and deployment of new commercial fast reactors.

Argonne’s Bo Feng, national technical director of the Fast Reactor Program, says every R&D activity of the Fast Reactor program fits within three areas intended to support commercialization: methods, modeling and validation; technology development; and advanced materials. These technical areas are essential to support commercial licensing, reduce capital costs or both.

Without this collaboration between the labs and private industry, new insights would be impossible.

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