X-energy announced it was awarded a $6 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) on the “Advanced Operation & Maintenance Techniques Implemented in the Xe-100 Plant Digital Twin to Reduce Fixed O&M Cost.” X-energy’s digital twin project aims to reduce the fixed operations and management (O&M) cost of its advanced nuclear reactor design to $2 per MWh.
Under the NCSU‘s subaward, Dr. Mihai A. Diaconeasa of the PRA Group will support X-energy’s efforts in the project by leading the Xe-100 PRA model development to inform the human factors engineering program and regulatory engagement on the control room staffing. We will determine the appropriate control room staffing levels by evaluating the procedures and timing of events under normal and abnormal conditions obtained from computer simulations and physical control room simulator exercises.