NEWS
Omega-P R&D, Inc. Awarded $2.6 Million in Federal Funding for Innovative Used Nuclear Fuel Transmutation Technology
Funding Provided by ARPA-E’s NEWTON Program to Enable Advanced Nuclear Waste Reduction
Omega-P R&D, Inc., a New Haven-based research and development company specializing in advanced accelerator physics, has been awarded $2.6 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E). The award, part of the $40 million Nuclear Energy Waste Transmutation Optimized Now (NEWTON) program, will support the development of an innovative accelerator technology designed to reduce the long-term toxicity of used nuclear fuel (UNF).
Omega-P R&D will collaborate on this groundbreaking project with leading scientists from the University of Connecticut – Avery Point and Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, NY. The focus of the research will be the development of a compact particle accelerator, the deuteron Cyclotron Auto-Resonance Accelerator (dCARA), paired with a neutron-generating target.
Unlike traditional large-scale transmutation facilities that have been considered but never implemented in the U.S. over the past three decades, Omega-P R&D’s pioneering approach is to develop cost-effective, small modular transmutation facilities. These strategically deployed modules would provide a scalable and more feasible solution for tackling nuclear waste management.
A Breakthrough in Nuclear Waste Management
Key features of the dCARA system include continuous deuteron acceleration with high efficiency in a compact and cost-effective design. Principal Investigator Dr. Yong Jiang emphasized that the accelerator’s efficiency and scalability make it a transformative technology in the field. Dr. Jay Hirshfield, President of Omega-P R&D, highlighted the long-term impact of this innovation:
“Our goal is to significantly reduce the time required to safely store the dangerous components of used nuclear fuel—from hundreds of thousands of years to just a few hundred years. This technology has the potential to revolutionize nuclear waste management by enabling widespread deployment of smaller, more efficient transmutation facilities.”
The NEWTON Program: Advancing Sustainable Nuclear Energy
The DOE’s NEWTON program is focused on addressing one of nuclear energy’s most critical challenges: the storage and disposal of used nuclear fuel. By funding the development of advanced transmutation technologies, the program aims to shift nuclear waste disposal from an intergenerational problem to an intergenerational solution, dramatically reducing long-term costs and risks.
Omega-P R&D is proud to contribute to this pioneering effort, pushing the boundaries of accelerator science and nuclear waste remediation.
Management Team
jay@omega-p.com
