Energy Dept. invests $40M in next-gen nuclear plant

The U.S. Department of Energy has announced two awards totaling $40 million to projects working on designing and building an innovative and improved nuclear plant. The recipients, Westinghouse Electric and San Diego, Calif.-based General Atomics, are charged with producing plans that the government will then choose to build or not.

The goal behind the Next Generation Nuclear Plant (or NGNP) project is to ultimately construct a plant capable of generating electricity and heat that can be used for various applications, while simultaneously being safer and less damaging to the environment than past nuclear plants.

The new system’s use of heat, in particular, distinguishes it from previous nuclear developments. Before, most of this heat was simply dumped into the atmosphere as waste. Now, new designs are looking at recirculating heat created by nuclear reactions to produce steam and turn turbines, generating even more electricity. This would not only up the plant’s efficiency, but also cut down on the amount of energy needed from fossil fuel sources.

The two award recipients will work in tandem through two phases. First, focus will be on research and development and producing very preliminary and conceptual designs for the plant. The second phase will take place only after the Department of Energy — in partnership with the Nuclear Energy Advisory Committee — gives the green light to construction of a demo-scale plant.

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