Two Cheyenne-based companies have been selected by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy to work on advanced nuclear technologies.
The businesses, Element Factory LLC and Kanata America Inc., have advanced in a competitive program with the federal energy agency that gives them access to the government’s top research laboratories to work on new advanced nuclear technologies in America.
The work is significant for Wyoming because of the state’s working level of involvement in rolling out a nuclear supply chain for making and assembling the deployment of small, micro nuclear reactors.
Wyoming isn’t unfamiliar with the program launched eight years ago.
Bill Gates-backed TerraPower was tapped for the same DOE program several times in recent years to test out its novel Natrium nuclear plant that the company hopes to begin building in Kemmerer in June in the southwestern part of the state.
The Natrium plant will use liquid sodium as a cooling agent instead of water. It worked on this concept at two of the 17 DOE research labs.
Chris Lohse, the innovation and technology director for the Idaho National Laboratories (INL), told Cowboy State Daily that the two Wyoming firms will have access with “vouchers” to specific national labs for their research — considered the gems of nuclear know-how in the country.
In industry parlance, the voucher program is called the Gateway for Accelerated Innovation in Nuclear (GAIN), and is managed by INL and the Argonne and Oak Ridge national labs in Illinois and Tennessee, respectively.
GAIN is designed to give startup companies access to tools at the labs to develop and research their nuclear ideas without having to spend their own valuable research money to recreate what the labs already have.
Supply Chain Work
The program doesn’t provide funding to Element Factory and Kanata America, but does open secret doors to the labs to help them overcome critical technological and commercialization challenges.
“We are seeing more interest in supply chain aspects,” said Lohse of the nuclear technologies.
Spokespersons with Element Factory and Kanata America did not respond to requests for comment.
Element Factory, an advanced clean energy technology company, will work with INL to develop nuclear-grade graphite components with carbon powder.
The end-product could be used in a micro modular nuclear reactor, kind of like the one TerraPower wants to build in Kemmerer.
INL performs nuclear energy research for commercial and military applications.
Kanata America is developing large energy storage systems with DOE’s Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Sandia’s mission is to provide scientific and technology support to national programs.
Laramie-based BGTL LLC was the only other Wyoming business involved with GAIN, according to data provided by INL. It examined thermal energy storage systems at DOE’s Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois.
The company appears to be no longer in business, according to Wyoming Secretary of State records.
In recent years, INL has focused attention on building closer ties with Wyoming and other states on research and deployment of advanced nuclear technologies.
The effort has come together around a push that the nuclear lab in Idaho Falls calls the Frontiers Initiative, designed to help the United States stay competitive with low-emission industrial activity through leading-edge technology.
Frontiers embraces a multi-state effort to jumpstart a nuclear component supply chain while GAIN opens the door to companies that want to research advanced technologies.
Pat Maio can be reached at pat@cowboystatedaily.com.
