Converting UNF Radioisotopes into Energy SBIR/STTR (CURIE SBIR/STTR). | DE FOA 0002692

Opportunity Information: Apply for DE FOA 0002692

The Converting UNF Radioisotopes into Energy SBIR/STTR (CURIE SBIR/STTR) funding opportunity (FOA DE-FOA-0002692) is an ARPA-E solicitation from the U.S. Department of Energy aimed at helping small businesses develop high-impact, applied research and development technologies that could make reprocessing used nuclear fuel (UNF) from today s light water reactors (LWRs) commercially viable. The core idea is to turn what is currently treated largely as a long-term disposal liability into multiple valuable outputs: recycled actinides that can serve as feedstock for advanced reactors (ARs), and selected fission products that have industrial or medical value, all while substantially shrinking the amount of high-level waste (HLW) that ultimately requires permanent disposal. In line with ARPA-E s mission, the program emphasizes transformational, disruptive approaches that can change the cost and performance trajectory of the field rather than incremental improvements that simply follow established development roadmaps.

CURIE is specifically looking for innovations that close key gaps in three connected areas: (1) separations technologies for UNF, (2) process monitoring and measurement methods for special nuclear material (SNM) to strengthen safeguards and material accountancy, and (3) reprocessing equipment designs and facility concepts that improve economics, scalability, and operational confidence. ARPA-E is signaling strong interest in integrated technical solutions where chemistry, engineering, sensing, and systems analysis work together, because reprocessing is not just a single unit operation; it is an end-to-end chain where cost, waste form, throughput, safeguards, and operability are tightly coupled.

A major feature of the FOA is that proposed projects are expected to advance one or more headline program metrics without creating unacceptable tradeoffs with the others. Those metrics include: reducing the volume of LWR high-level waste requiring permanent disposal by at least an order of magnitude; keeping disposal-related costs in the neighborhood of 0.1 cents per kilowatt-hour; enabling a fuel cost around 1 cent per kilowatt-hour for a 200 metric tons heavy metal per year nth-of-a-kind facility; demonstrating in situ SNM monitoring that can predict post-process material accountancy within 1-sigma uncertainty under representative conditions; and ensuring that UNF separations approaches do not produce pure plutonium streams. Taken together, these targets reflect ARPA-E s intent to support reprocessing pathways that are not only technically credible, but also economically competitive and aligned with modern nonproliferation and safeguards expectations.

This SBIR/STTR opportunity sits within a broader ARPA-E strategy (noted as nearly 90 million across related efforts) to reduce the nation s HLW burden and improve radioactive waste management outcomes, and it is designed to complement ARPA-E s ONWARDS program. The distinction highlighted in the FOA is that CURIE is centered on enabling UNF from the existing LWR fleet to become useful feedstock for future nuclear fuel cycles and advanced reactors, while also opening the door to recovery of high-value radioisotopes and materials. In practical terms, CURIE is trying to make the back end of the nuclear fuel cycle more sustainable by reducing the long-lived waste footprint and extracting additional economic value from material that would otherwise be destined for disposal.

From an administrative and eligibility standpoint, the opportunity is classified as discretionary funding with awards made through instruments such as cooperative agreements and grants (and potentially other mechanisms listed in the FOA). Eligibility is limited to small businesses, consistent with SBIR/STTR requirements. ARPA-E anticipated making about 12 awards, with an award ceiling listed at $3,952,638. The opportunity was posted March 15, 2022, with submissions due by 9:30 a.m. Eastern Time on April 14, 2022, and applicants were encouraged to submit at least 48 hours before the deadline to avoid last-minute issues.

Applications had to be submitted through ARPA-E eXCHANGE, and ARPA-E indicated it would not review or consider concept papers submitted by other means. The FOA directs applicants to the ARPA-E FOA site for the full announcement and to the eXCHANGE user guide for step-by-step submission guidance. For technical issues with the submission portal, applicants were instructed to contact ExchangeHelp@hq.doe.gov with the FOA name and number in the subject line, while programmatic questions were routed first to ARPA-E s FAQ and then, if still unresolved, to ARPA-E-CO@hq.doe.gov. Overall, the solicitation is aimed at small businesses with credible, high-risk high-reward approaches that can materially improve the economics, waste outcomes, and safeguards profile of UNF reprocessing at scales relevant to real facilities.

• The Department of Energy, Advanced Research Projects Agency Energy in the opportunity zone benefits, science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Converting UNF Radioisotopes into Energy SBIR/STTR (CURIE SBIR/STTR)." and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 81.135.
• This funding opportunity was created on Mar 15, 2022.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Apr 14, 2022 Submissions to this FOA are due no later than 930 a.m. Eastern Time on 04/14/2022. Applicants are strongly encouraged to submit at least 48 hours in advance of the due date.. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $3,952,638.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 12 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Small businesses.

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