Converting UNF Radioisotopes into Energy (CURIE). | DE FOA 0002691

Opportunity Information: Apply for DE FOA 0002691

The Department of Energy's Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) funding opportunity called Converting UNF Radioisotopes into Energy (CURIE) is aimed at making used nuclear fuel (UNF) from today's light water reactors (LWRs) a practical, economical feedstock for the next generation of advanced reactors. The core idea is to move beyond treating UNF primarily as a disposal problem and instead develop reprocessing approaches that can recover valuable materials while sharply reducing the amount of high-level waste (HLW) that ultimately needs permanent disposal. ARPA-E frames this as a transformative, applied R&D push: high-risk, high-reward projects that could reset the cost and performance curve for UNF reprocessing, rather than incremental improvements along a well-established pathway.

CURIE focuses on resolving key gaps that have historically limited the commercial viability and safeguards confidence of reprocessing. The program is looking for projects that advance one or more of the following areas: innovative separations technologies (how materials in UNF are chemically or physically separated), improved process monitoring for special nuclear material (SNM) to support strong safeguards and accountability, novel equipment and facility design concepts that improve throughput and economics, and system-level analyses that quantify how proposed approaches meet the program targets without creating new problems elsewhere. In plain terms, ARPA-E is not only interested in the chemistry; it is equally interested in practical, monitorable, scalable processing systems that could plausibly operate in a real facility with credible material accountancy and competitive costs.

The desired end state is a reprocessing flow that takes LWR UNF and produces useful outputs. One output is recovered actinides (elements like uranium and transuranics) that can become fuel or fuel feedstock for advanced reactors. Another output category is commercially valuable non-fuel materials, including certain fission products that may have industrial or medical value (the FOA explicitly points to precious metals and medical radioisotopes as examples). At the same time, CURIE emphasizes minimizing the residual HLW burden to reduce long-term disposal needs and costs.

ARPA-E defines a set of global program metrics that proposals are expected to satisfy in whole or in part, while not undermining the other metrics. These include: (1) reducing the volume of LWR-derived HLW requiring permanent disposal by at least an order of magnitude; (2) keeping disposal costs around 0.1 cents per kilowatt-hour; (3) enabling a fuel cost of about 1 cent per kilowatt-hour for an nth-of-a-kind facility sized at 200 metric tons heavy metal per year (MTHM/yr); (4) developing in situ SNM process monitoring that can predict post-process material accountancy within 1 sigma uncertainty under representative conditions, supporting predictive material accountancy rather than after-the-fact estimates; and (5) ensuring separations approaches do not produce pure plutonium streams, reflecting a strong nonproliferation and safeguards sensitivity in how separations are designed. Taken together, these metrics signal that ARPA-E is pushing for a reprocessing concept that is not only cheaper and lower-waste, but also inherently more monitorable and less prone to producing outputs that raise security concerns.

In the broader context, CURIE is described as part of an ARPA-E strategy totaling nearly $90 million to manage and reduce the nation's HLW inventory, and it is positioned to complement the ONWARDS program. The distinction ARPA-E draws is that while both programs target HLW reduction, CURIE is specifically centered on enabling UNF from the existing LWR fleet to be converted into future fuel resources and other valuable products, effectively linking today's nuclear waste liabilities to tomorrow's nuclear energy supply chain.

From an administrative and applicant standpoint, the opportunity was issued by ARPA-E within DOE under FOA Number DE-FOA-0002961 (the source data also references DE-FOA-0002691, but the narrative repeatedly identifies DE-FOA-0002961 as the CURIE FOA number). The funding instrument types include cooperative agreements, grants, and other mechanisms, and eligibility is listed as unrestricted, meaning a broad range of entity types can apply as long as they meet any specific conditions in the FOA text. The award ceiling is listed at $10,000,000, with an expectation of around 12 awards. Applications had to be submitted through ARPA-E eXCHANGE, with ARPA-E explicitly stating it would not review concept papers submitted through other channels. The original closing deadline was April 14, 2022 at 9:30 a.m. Eastern Time, with applicants encouraged to submit at least 48 hours early. For logistics, ARPA-E directed applicants to eXCHANGE support (ExchangeHelp@hq.doe.gov) and to FOA-specific questions via ARPA-E-CO@hq.doe.gov, along with an FAQ page on the ARPA-E website.

Overall, CURIE is a targeted ARPA-E effort to make UNF reprocessing economically credible, waste-reducing, and safeguards-forward. It is designed to push innovations that could enable a scalable domestic capability to recover advanced reactor fuel feedstocks and high-value isotopes from current reactor UNF, while substantially shrinking the HLW disposal footprint and avoiding separations outcomes that heighten proliferation concerns.

• 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 (CURIE)." 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 $10,000,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 12 candidate(s).
• 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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