At the center of nuclear reactors across the United States, a new type of chromium-coated fuel is being used to make the reactors more efficient and more resistant to accidents. The fuel is one of many innovations sprung from collaboration between researchers at MIT and the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) - a relationship that has altered the trajectory of the country's nuclear industry.
Amid renewed excitement around nuclear energy in America, MIT's research community is working to further develop next-generation fuels, accelerate the deployment of small modular reactors (SMRs), and enable the first nuclear reactor in space.
Researchers at MIT and INL have worked closely for decades, and the collaboration takes many forms, including joint research efforts, student and postdoc internships, and a standing agreement that lets INL employees spend extended periods on MIT's campus researching and teaching classes. MIT is also a founding member of the Battelle Energy Alliance, which has managed the Idaho National Laboratory for the Department of Energy since 2005.
The collaboration gives MIT's community a chance to work on the biggest problems facing America's nuclear industry while bolstering INL's research infrastructure.
"The Idaho National Laboratory is the lead lab for nuclear energy technology in the United States today - that's why it's essential that MIT works hand in hand with INL," says Jacopo Buongiorno, the Battelle Energy Alliance Professor in Nuclear Science and Engineering at MIT. "Countless MIT students and postdocs have interned at INL over the years, and a memorandum of understanding that strengthened the collaboration between MIT and INL in 2019 has been extended twice."
Ian Waitz, MIT's vice president for research, adds, "The strong collaborative history between MIT and the Idaho National Laboratory enables us to jointly contribute practical technologies to enable the growth of clean, safe nuclear energy. It's a clear example of how rigorous collaboration across sectors, and among the nation's top research facilities, can advance U.S. economic prosperity, health, and well-being."
Research with impact
Much of MIT's joint research with INL involves tests and simulations of new nuclear materials, fuels, and instrumentation. One of the largest collaborations was part of a global push for more accident-tolerant fuels in the wake of the nuclear accident that followed the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Fukushima, Japan.
In a series of studies involving INL and members of the nuclear energy industry, MIT researchers helped identify and evaluate alloy materials that could be deployed in the near term to not only bolster safety but also offer higher densities of fuel.
"These new alloys can withstand much more challenging conditions during abnormal occurrences without reacting chemically with steam, which could result in hydrogen explosions during accidents," explains Buongiorno, who is also the director of science and technology at MIT's Nuclear Reactor Laboratory and the director of MIT's Center for Advanced Nuclear Energy Systems. "The fuels can take much more abuse without breaking apart in the reactor, resulting in a higher safety margin."
The fuels tested at MIT were eventually adopted by power plants across the U.S., starting with the Byron Clean Energy Center in Ogle County, Illinois.
"We're also developing new materials, fuels, and instrumentation," Buongiorno says. "People don't just come to MIT and say, 'I have this idea, evaluate it for me.' We collaborate with industry and national labs to develop the new ideas together, and then we put them to the test, reproducing the environment in which these materials and fuels would operate in commercial power reactors. That capability is quite unique."
Another major collaboration was led by Koroush Shirvan, MIT's Atlantic Richfield Career Development Professor in Energy Studies. Shirvan's team analyzed the costs associated with different reactor designs, eventually developing an open-source tool to help industry leaders evaluate the feasibility of different approaches.
"The reason we're not building a single nuclear reactor in the U.S. right now is cost and financial risk," Shirvan says. "The projects have gone over budget by a factor of two and their schedule has lengthened by a factor of 1.5, so we've been doing a lot of work assessing the risk drivers. There's also a lot of different types of reactors proposed, so we've looked at their cost potential as well and how those costs change if you can mass manufacture them."
Other INL-supported research of Shirvan's involves exploring new manufacturing methods for nuclear fuels and testing materials for use in a nuclear reactor on the surface of the moon.
"You want materials that are lightweight for these nuclear reactors because you have to send them to space, but there isn't much data around how those light materials perform in nuclear environments," Shirvan says.
People and progress
Every summer, MIT students at every level travel to Idaho to conduct research in INL labs as interns.
"It's an example of our students getting access to cutting-edge research facilities," Shirvan says.
There are also several joint research appointments between the institutions. One such appointment is held by Sacit Cetiner, a distinguished scientist at INL who also currently runs the MIT and INL Joint Center for Reactor Instrumentation and Sensor Physics (CRISP) at MIT's Nuclear Reactor Laboratory.
CRISP focuses its research on key technology areas in the field of instrumentation and controls, which have long stymied the bottom line of nuclear power generation.
"For the current light-water reactor fleet, operations and maintenance expenditures constitute a sizeable fraction of unit electricity generation cost," says Cetiner. "In order to make advanced reactors economically competitive, it's much more reasonable to address anticipated operational issues during the design phase. One such critical technology area is remote and autonomous operations. Working directly with INL, which manages the projects for the design and testing of several advanced reactors under a number of federal programs, gives our students, faculty, and researchers opportunities to make a real impact."
The sharing of experts helps strengthen MIT and the nation's nuclear workforce overall.
"MIT has a crucial role to play in advancing the country's nuclear industry, whether that's testing and developing new technologies or assessing the economic feasibility of new nuclear designs," Buongiorno says.
