MEITNER Highlights

Women have always been at the forefront of scientific discovery, seeking new technical horizons from physics to chemistry and everywhere in between. As Women’s History Month draws to a close, ARPA-E honors the inspirational women at the heart of our own mission to chart new courses in how we use, generate, and store energy.

This report summarizes a modeling effort to estimate the highest allowable CapEx for advanced nuclear plants in future power market environments to still achieve a market rate of return for their owners.

We sat down with ARPA-E Program Director, Dr. Rachel Slaybaugh, as she reflected on her experience attending the very first ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit Student Program back in 2010.

ARPA-E held a kick-off meeting for its Modeling-Enhanced Innovations Trailblazing Nuclear Energy Reinvigoration (MEITNER) program from December 11-12, 2018 at the Fairfield Inn and Suites in Charlotte, NC.

ARPA-E understands MEITNER projects have particularly difficult work to execute, so the agency assembled the first-ever Resource Team to help projects test and validate their concepts. Resource Team members come from the Energy Department’s National Laboratories—one of largest scientific research enterprises in the world—to provide critical guidance and modeling resources that enable MEITNER teams to simulate the effectiveness of their ideas long before building real-world versions.

Today, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced up to $24 million in funding for 10 projects as part of a new Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) program: Modeling-Enhanced Innovations Trailblazing Nuclear Energy Reinvigoration (MEITNER). MEITNER teams will identify and develop innovative technologies that enable designs for lower cost, safer, advanced nuclear reactors.

Today, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced up to $20 million in funding for projects as part of a new Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) program: Modeling-Enhanced Innovations Trailblazing Nuclear Energy Reinvigoration (MEITNER). MEITNER projects seek to identify and develop innovative technologies that can enable designs for lower cost, safer, advanced nuclear reactors. The ARPA-E team developed this funding opportunity in close coordination with DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy.

ARPA-E held a workshop on "Safe and Secure Megawatt-Size Nuclear Power" on March 16-17, 2016 in the Washington, D.C. area. This workshop will bring together experts in nuclear reactor design, nuclear science, materials science, controls, advanced sensors and monitors, manufacturing, risk analysis, non-proliferation/safeguards, as well as potential end users, vendors, investors, and other relevant stakeholders.