Advanced Nuclear Energy Technology Challenge

Advanced nuclear technologies, including small modular reactors (SMRs), microreactors, and next-generation reactor designs diverge from stereotypical nuclear power plants, massive structures, built decades ago, generating electricity for millions of homes. The next generation of nuclear technologies aim to provide reliable, carbon-free energy in a form that can be manufactured, deployed, and operated more efficiently.

The Advanced Nuclear Energy Technology Challenge identified technologies that make nuclear energy smaller, smarter, faster to deploy, and easier to integrate into modern energy systems. These innovative new systems could power military installations, industrial facilities, data centers, manufacturing plants, remote communities, and electric grids that increasingly need around-the-clock energy.

Diverse stakeholders including policymakers, utilities, and industry leaders are interested in energy sources that are reliable, scalable, carbon-free, secure, and domestic. Nuclear power is one of the few technologies capable of meeting all those requirements simultaneously.