The DOE's Office of Nuclear Energy has awarded approximately $2.7 million in National Science User Facilities access to 18 nuclear fuel and materials research projects. The awards, granted under the Super Rapid Turnaround Experiment (Super RTE) program, give researchers up to 12 months to complete their work and roughly double the facility access time of standard nine-month rapid turnaround awards.

Researchers from 11 institutions will lead the 18 teams. Oklo is the only industry lead, alongside principal investigators from Idaho, Oak Ridge and Pacific Northwest national laboratories and seven universities: the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Alabama–Birmingham, the University of Florida, the University of Illinois–Urbana-Champaign, the University of Michigan–Ann Arbor, the University of North Texas and the University of Wisconsin–Madison. The DOE did not specify how the 18 awards are divided among the 11 institutions or name the specific projects.

The awards provide experimental irradiation testing, postirradiation examination, high-performance computing and technical expertise at partner facilities. Teams will use mechanical testing, microstructural analysis and microscopy to evaluate irradiated metallic fuels, structural alloys, cladding, graphite moderators and sensor materials across varying doses, temperatures, exposure times and manufacturing methods. According to the DOE, the research could support fuels and corrosion-resistant materials for molten salt and advanced reactors, as well as lifetime extensions for existing plants.

The DOE awarded its first round of Super RTEs in 2024 to allow for irradiation effects studies of larger scope than standard rapid turnaround projects. Proposals for the next round of rapid turnaround funding are due November 9.