Creating Hardened and Durable Fusion First Wall Incorporating Centralized Knowledge (CHADWICK)
Agency: Advanced Research Projects Agency Energy 
Posted: 2024-01-11 | Closing date: 2024-05-21
Full application submissions to this FOA are due no later than 9:30 a.m. Eastern Time on 05/21/2024.   Applicants are strongly encouraged to submit at least 48 hours in advance of the due date.
Estimated total program funding: 0
Award ceiling: 7000000
Award floor: 1000000
Expected number of awards: 0
Cost sharing or matching requirement: Yes

To obtain a copy of the Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) please go to the ARPA-E website at https://arpa-e-foa.energy.gov. To apply to this FOA, Applicants must register with and submit application materials through ARPA-E eXCHANGE (https://arpa-e-foa.energy.gov/Registration.aspx). For detailed guidance on using ARPA-E eXCHANGE, please refer to the ARPA-E eXCHANGE User Guide (https://arpa-e-foa.energy.gov/Manuals.aspx). ARPA-E will not review or consider concept papers submitted through other means. For problems with ARPA-E eXCHANGE, email ExchangeHelp@hq.doe.gov (with FOA name and number in the subject line).Questions about this FOA? Check the Frequently Asked Questions available at http://arpa-e.energy.gov/faq. For questions that have not already been answered, email ARPA-E-CO@hq.doe.gov. Agency Overview: The Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E), an organization within the Department of Energy (DOE), is chartered by Congress in the America COMPETES Act of 2007 (P.L. 110-69), as amended by the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010 (P.L. 111-358), as further amended by the Energy Act of 2020 (P.L. 116-260) to:“(A) to enhance the economic and energy security of the United States through the development of energy technologies that—(i) reduce imports of energy from foreign sources;(ii) reduce energy-related emissions, including greenhouse gases; (iii) improve the energy efficiency of all economic sectors; (iv) provide transformative solutions to improve the management, clean-up, and disposal of radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel; and(v) improve the resilience, reliability, and security of infrastructure to produce, deliver, and store energy; and(B) to ensure that the United States maintains a technological lead in developing and deploying advanced energy technologies.”ARPA-E issues this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) under its authorizing statute codified at 42 U.S.C. § 16538. The FOA and any awards made under this FOA are subject to 2 C.F.R. Part 200 as supplemented by 2 C.F.R. Part 910. ARPA-E funds research on and the development of transformative science and technology solutions to address the energy and environmental missions of the Department. The agency focuses on technologies that can be meaningfully advanced with a modest investment over a defined period of time in order to catalyze the translation from scientific discovery to early-stage technology. For the latest news and information about ARPA-E, its programs and the research projects currently supported, see: http://arpa-e.energy.gov/.ARPA-E funds transformational research. Existing energy technologies generally progress on established “learning curves” where refinements to a technology and the economies of scale that accrue as manufacturing and distribution develop drive down the cost/performance metric in a gradual fashion. This continual improvement of a technology is important to its increased commercial deployment and is appropriately the focus of the private sector or the applied technology offices within DOE. By contrast, ARPA-E supports transformative research that has the potential to create fundamentally new learning curves. ARPA-E technology projects typically start with cost/performance estimates well above the level of an incumbent technology. Given the high risk inherent in these projects, many will fail to progress, but some may succeed in generating a new learning curve with a projected cost/performance metric that is significantly lower than that of the incumbent technology.ARPA-E funds technology with the potential to be disruptive in the marketplace. The mere creation of a new learning curve does not ensure market penetration. Rather, the ultimate value of a technology is determined by the marketplace, and impactful technologies ultimately become disruptive – that is, they are widely adopted and displace existing technologies from the marketplace or create entirely new markets. ARPA-E understands that definitive proof of market disruption takes time, particularly for energy technologies. Therefore, ARPA-E funds the development of technologies that, if technically successful, have clear disruptive potential, e.g., by demonstrating capability for manufacturing at competitive cost and deployment at scale.ARPA-E funds applied research and development. The Office of Management and Budget defines “applied research” as an “original investigation undertaken in order to acquire new knowledge…directed primarily towards a specific practical aim or objective” and defines “experimental development” as “creative and systematic work, drawing on knowledge gained from research and practical experience, which is directed at producing new products or processes or improving existing products or processes.” (http://science.energy.gov/). Office of Science national scientific user facilities (http://science.energy.gov/user-facilities/) are open to all researchers, including ARPA-E Applicants and awardees. These facilities provide advanced tools of modern science including accelerators, colliders, supercomputers, light sources and neutron sources, as well as facilities for studying the nanoworld, the environment, and the atmosphere. Projects focused on early-stage R&D for the improvement of technology along defined roadmaps may be more appropriate for support through the DOE applied energy offices including: the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (http://www.eere.energy.gov/), the Office of Fossil Energy (http://fossil.energy.gov/), the Office of Nuclear Energy (http://www.energy.gov/ne/office-nuclear-energy), and the Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability (http://energy.gov/oe/office-electricity-delivery-and-energy-reliability). Applicants interested in receiving financial assistance for basic research (defined by the Office of Management and Budget as “experimental or theoretical work undertaken primarily to acquire new knowledge of the underlying foundations of phenomena and observable facts”) should contact the DOE’s Office of Science (http://science.energy.gov/). Office of Science national scientific user facilities (http://science.energy.gov/user-facilities/) are open to all researchers, including ARPA-E Applicants and awardees. These facilities provide advanced tools of modern science including accelerators, colliders, supercomputers, light sources and neutron sources, as well as facilities for studying the nanoworld, the environment, and the atmosphere. Projects focused on early-stage R&D for the improvement of technology along defined roadmaps may be more appropriate for support through the DOE applied energy offices including: the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (http://www.eere.energy.gov/), the Office of Fossil Energy (http://fossil.energy.gov/), the Office of Nuclear Energy (http://www.energy.gov/ne/office-nuclear-energy), and the Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability (http://energy.gov/oe/office-electricity-delivery-and-energy-reliability). Program Overview: The Creating Hardened And Durable fusion first Wall Incorporating Centralized Knowledge (CHADWICK) program will pursue discovery and testing of novel, first-wall materials that will maintain design performance over the target 40-year design lifetime of a fusion power plant. In most fusion power systems, the fusion reactions are physically contained by the first wall. The first wall bears the mechanical load and protects the components from the extreme heat and highly energetic charged and neutral particles. The safety and structural performance of the first wall are compromised over time by significant exposure to high-energy (>1 million electron volts (MeV)) neutrons and heat flux as much as 10 megawatts per square meter (MW/m2)). As fusion energy advances towards commercial deployment, the lifetime and maintainability of first-wall materials will become a major challenge for the commercial viability of fusion power plants with high neutron flux. Thermal effects on materials are relatively well understood. However, the combination of heat plus an intense neutron environment can generate many nonlinear effects that are difficult to predict. Radiation most commonly damages a material by driving atomic displacements and the transmuting of isotopes within the material structure. Some transmutation events encourage the development of activation product gasses, such as hydrogen and helium, which encourage wall swelling. The combination of stresses caused by atomic dislocations, swelling, and thermal contraction and expansion drive material hardening and embrittlement, ultimately promoting premature cracking and failure. The most common descriptor for radiation damage is displacements per atom (dpa). These displacements can cause irradiation embrittlement leading to the loss of ductility in a material after exposure to radiation. Fusion power plant first-wall materials are anticipated to experience >50 dpa over the desired 40-year operational period. Radiation damage has been observed to harden and embrittle first-wall materials at levels as low as 5 dpa.The goal of the CHADWICK program is the discovery, development, and production of new materials that can maintain the following metrics in a fusion first-wall environment:• Room temperature ductility after 50 dpa of irradiation damage and helium generation;• Sufficiently high thermal conductivity to remove up to 10 MW/m2 of heat;• Activation below 10,000 Sieverts per hour (Sv/hr) to enable remote handling;• Swelling below 1% to maintain dimensional stability; and• Tritium retention and plasma erosion lower than current state-of-the-art (SoA) materials.SoA materials under consideration for fusion first-wall applications are currently limited to reduced activation ferritic martensitic (RAFM) steels and tungsten.7 Both materials suffer from irradiation and helium embrittlement issues that make fusion power plants prohibitively expensive to qualify and operate. New materials that are highly resistant or functionally immune to irradiation embrittlement up to 50 dpa can increase the lifetime of the first wall by a factor of 10. These materials are envisioned to be essential to the deployment of sustained and economical fusion energy.To view the FOA in its entirety, please visit https://arpa-e-foa.energy.gov.

Eligibility: See Section III.A. of the FOA