Maintenance of Advanced Reactor Sensors and Components (MARS)

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Program:
GEMINA
Award:
$2,199,009
Location:
Lemont, Illinois
Status:
ACTIVE
Project Term:
09/28/2020 - 03/27/2025
Website:

Technology Description:

Advanced reactor (AR) power plants can minimize O&M costs by integrating advanced instrumentation and control systems into designs. Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) aims to reduce the O&M cost of the Kairos Power fluoride salt-cooled high temperature reactor by (1) developing advanced distributed sensing and data generation techniques to characterize critical components and systems; (2) increasing sensor diversity and functionality to measure several process variables simultaneously; and (3) automating maintenance tasks through machine learning-enabled fault detection and diagnostics and intelligent sensor placement. Accomplishing these objectives will reduce the number of required AR staff as well as repair and replacement costs. Research facilities will include ANL and University of Wisconsin liquid sodium and molten salt facilities. Proposed methods are expected to achieve $2/MWh O&M cost.

Potential Impact:

The program goal is to reduce fixed O&M costs from ~13 $/MWh in the current fleet to ~2 $/MWh in the advanced fleet. Benefits include:

Security:

Establishing U.S. advanced reactor technological leadership and improving U.S. energy security with safe, reliable, dispatchable power for a robust and resilient electric power system;

Environment:

Reducing energy-related emissions with a competitive, carbon-free electricity source; and

Economy:

Increasing productivity and creating a competitive edge for advanced reactors.

Contact

ARPA-E Program Director:
Dr. Jenifer Shafer
Project Contact:
Dr. Alexander Heifetz
Press and General Inquiries Email:
ARPA-E-Comms@hq.doe.gov
Project Contact Email:
aheifetz@anl.gov

Partners

University of Wisconsin

Related Projects

• Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) - Maintenance of Advanced Reactor Sensors and Components (MARS)
• Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) - Build-to-Replace: A New Paradigm for Reducing Advanced Reactor O&M Costs
• Framatome - Digital Twin-Based Asset Performance and Reliability Diagnosis for the HTGR Reactor Cavity Cooling System Using Metroscope
• General Electric (GE) Global Research - AI-Enabled Predictive Maintenance Digital Twins for Advanced Nuclear Reactors
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) - High-Fidelity Digital Twins for BWRX-300 Critical Systems
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) - Generation of Critical Irradiation Data to Enable Digital Twinning of Molten-Salt Reactors
• Moltex Energy - SSR APPLIED - Automated Power Plants: Intelligent, Efficient, and Digitized
• University of Michigan - SAFARI: Secure Automation For Advanced Reactor Innovation
• X-Energy - Advanced Operation & Maintenance Techniques Implemented in the Xe-100 Plant Digital Twin to Reduce Fixed O&M Cost

Release Date:
10/02/2019