Funding will support the project team's small-scale research and development of a Nested Pebble Bed Blanket (NesPeB) to address current blanket concepts' shortcomings and technical immaturity and to pave the way for rapid deployment of fusion power plants.
Office of NEPA Policy and Compliance
August 21, 2025
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Funding will support the project team's small-scale research and development of a Nested Pebble Bed Blanket (NesPeB) to address current blanket concepts' shortcomings and technical immaturity and to pave the way for rapid deployment of fusion power plants. Specifically, the project team will (1) design experiments and safety analysis for developing and testing materials, (2) fabricate, test, and validate material components of a NesPeB, (3) combine components into a single pebble for testing and validation, (4) manufacture multiple pebbles for testing to meet predetermined performance metrics, and (5) based on performance results, conduct a full simulation of a modeled NesPeB with a goal of meeting final performance metrics.