MIT and INL advance accident-tolerant nuclear fuels

MIT announces expanded collaboration with the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) to develop next-generation nuclear fuels, small modular reactors (SMRs), and reactor instrumentation.

• Main action: MIT and INL conduct joint research, student/postdoc internships, and long-term appointments under an extended memorandum of understanding (originally strengthened in 2019 and extended twice) to test and deploy chromium-coated accident-tolerant fuels now used at U.S. power plants (e.g., Byron Clean Energy Center) and to advance SMRs and space reactor materials.
• Background & details: Collaboration includes the Battelle Energy Alliance (INL manager for the U.S. Department of Energy), the CRISP joint center for instrumentation and controls, an open-source cost-analysis tool developed by Koroush Shirvan showing reactor projects historically run ~2x over budget and ~1.5x longer schedules, and summer internships sending MIT students to INL labs; work covers testing, simulations, and reproducing commercial-reactor environments.