The Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) announced $40 million in funding to develop cutting-edge technologies to enable the transmutation of used nuclear fuel (UNF) into less radioactive substances. This new initiative would address one of ARPA-E’s core goals as outlined by Congress, to provide transformative solutions to improve the management, clean-up, and disposal of radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel. In turn, it could revolutionize the nuclear power industry, allowing for additional emissions-free nuclear power generation.

The Nuclear Energy Waste Transmutation Optimized Now (NEWTON) program seeks to develop technologies that enable transmutation, the process in which an isotope is converted to a different isotope or element through a nuclear reaction. NEWTON aims to enable the economic viability of transmutation at a scale that will significantly reduce the mass, volume, activity, and effective half-life of the existing stockpile of commercial UNF.

The NEWTON program focuses on three key objectives:

• Develop technologies related to the generation and acceleration of particle beams that can initiate transmutation reactions;

• Identify solutions related to modelling, designing, and fabricating target materials for transmutation of used nuclear fuel, incorporating transmutable materials into a target, and processing transmuted material for waste or isolation; and

• Integrate the technologies developed in the first two categories into a techno-economic analysis and life-cycle assessment of a transmutation facility and maintain a materials and components database for transmutation facilities.

NEWTON continues ARPA-E’s work to develop a variety of ways to address UNF. These efforts include its CURIE and ONWARDS programs which focus on recycling UNF into fuel for advanced reactors, which would increase fuel efficiency and reduce the volume of waste requiring permanent disposal.