Optimizing Nuclear Waste and Advanced Reactor Disposal Systems (ONWARDS) | DE FOA 0002530

Opportunity Information: Apply for DE FOA 0002530

The Optimizing Nuclear Waste and Advanced Reactor Disposal Systems (ONWARDS) funding opportunity (DOE ARPA-E FOA DE-FOA-0002530) is a competitive, discretionary ARPA-E program aimed at solving one of the biggest practical barriers to expanding advanced nuclear energy in the United States: what to do with the back end of advanced reactor (AR) fuel cycles. ONWARDS focuses on the technologies and systems needed to reduce the volume, hazard, and disposal complexity of used nuclear fuel (UNF) and other radioactive waste streams that would come from deploying advanced reactors, while also improving the ability to measure and control nuclear materials during processing. The program is rooted in ARPA-E's mission to fund applied research and development that is transformative and potentially market-disruptive, meaning it is not looking for incremental improvements but for approaches that can change the cost and performance trajectory of nuclear waste management and disposal.

At the center of ONWARDS is the idea that waste disposal cannot be treated as an afterthought that gets addressed decades after reactors are built. Instead, ARPA-E is pushing for early, integrated consideration of the back end of the fuel cycle during the design and pre-deployment phase of advanced reactors. The FOA explicitly supports both open (once-through, no reprocessing) and closed (reprocessing-based) advanced reactor fuel cycles. That matters because different advanced reactor designs and fuel choices can generate very different waste forms and chemical compositions, which in turn drives different repository needs, different safety and security considerations, and different costs. By funding back-end technologies ahead of widespread deployment, ONWARDS aims to remove major commercialization barriers for advanced nuclear systems and reduce long-term uncertainties around final disposition pathways for high-level waste.

The program lays out clear technical performance ambitions. Key ONWARDS metrics include achieving roughly an order-of-magnitude reduction in advanced reactor waste volume generation or repository footprint relative to conventional light-water reactor (LWR) waste disposal needs, reaching better than 1 percent fissile-mass accountancy in reprocessing streams (a nontrivial target tied directly to safeguards, proliferation resistance, and operational control), developing high-performance waste forms that can be matched to a range of deep geological repository (DGR) environments and disposal concepts, and pushing toward very low added system costs on the order of about $1 per megawatt-hour. In practical terms, ARPA-E is signaling that successful projects should not only work technically, but also show a credible path to scaling and cost levels that would not derail the economics of advanced nuclear power.

ONWARDS highlights three broad technical thrusts: reprocessing approaches that are innovative and cost-effective (including methods suited to advanced fuels and waste chemistries), material accountancy technologies that can track and quantify fissile materials with high precision in challenging, high-radiation and chemically complex environments, and advanced waste forms designed for durability and compatibility with real disposal settings. The FOA indicates that the specific technical categories of interest and performance targets are detailed in Sections I.D and I.E of the full announcement, with additional guidance on research resources and teaming in Section I.F. A recurring theme is that winning projects will likely need to validate performance through realistic demonstrations, not just paper studies, which often requires specialized infrastructure.

Because nuclear back-end R&D is resource-intensive, ARPA-E emphasizes the importance of access to enabling capabilities such as hot cells, gloveboxes, radiation-hardened sensor test environments, fuel processing and separations facilities, capabilities for storing and handling radioactive or hazardous materials, and high-performance computing tools for modeling and performance assessment. The FOA encourages applicants who do not already have this infrastructure to form teams with organizations that do, including national laboratories, universities, and commercial partners. While lack of access is not an automatic disqualifier at the concept paper stage, the FOA makes it clear that by the full application stage teams must be able to demonstrate credible access to the resources required to execute the proposed R&D and reach meaningful demonstrations.

From an applicant and process standpoint, ONWARDS is run through ARPA-E's eXCHANGE system, and ARPA-E will only consider concept papers submitted through that portal. Applicants must register and submit electronically, using the ARPA-E eXCHANGE website and its user guide for formatting and submission instructions. For technical issues with the submission platform, the FOA directs applicants to ExchangeHelp@hq.doe.gov (including the FOA name and number in the subject line). For programmatic questions not answered in ARPA-E's FAQ, the FOA points to ARPA-E-CO@hq.doe.gov. The opportunity is listed as open eligibility (unrestricted, with any clarifications contained in the FOA itself) and supports awards via cooperative agreements, grants, or other assistance instruments as determined by ARPA-E. The listed award ceiling is up to $10,000,000 per award. The opportunity was created May 19, 2021, with concept papers due July 9, 2021 at 9:30 a.m. ET, and applicants were encouraged to submit at least 48 hours early.

Overall, ONWARDS is best understood as ARPA-E's push to make advanced nuclear fuel cycles more sustainable and more bankable by shrinking disposal burdens, strengthening safeguards-relevant measurement and accountancy, and producing waste forms that are better suited for credible deep disposal. Even though total nuclear waste volumes are small compared to many industrial waste streams, ARPA-E is highlighting that the combination of radioactivity, long-lived hazards, and diversion risk has made final disposition politically and technically difficult. ONWARDS is designed to change that equation by funding early-stage but demonstrable, high-impact technologies that could make the back end of advanced reactor deployment simpler, safer, more secure, and cheaper to manage at scale.

• 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 "Optimizing Nuclear Waste and Advanced Reactor Disposal Systems (ONWARDS)" 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 May 19, 2021.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Jul 09, 2021 Concept Papers are due no later than July 9, 2021 at 930 a.m. ET. Applicants are strongly encouraged to submit 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 $10,000,000.00 in funding.
• Eligible applicants include: Unrestricted (i.e., open to any type of entity above), subject to any clarification in text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility.

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