USNC Awarded $5M NASA Nuclear Propulsion Contract

By Ultra Safe Nuclear
Published on OCTOBER 17, 2023

SEATTLE (October 17, 2023) – Ultra Safe Nuclear Corporation (USNC), a leader in nuclear energy innovation, is pleased to announce that it has been awarded a contract by NASA to develop and mature Nuclear Thermal Propulsion (NTP) systems for the advancement of America’s civil science and cislunar capabilities. This contract, which will see NTP move from the paper phase into hardware, is a testament to USNC’s capabilities on the leading edge of advanced reactor design and manufacturing.

Under this contract, USNC will manufacture and test advanced, proprietary fuel the company has developed through significant internal research and development efforts. Simultaneously, the company will collaborate with its commercial partner, Blue Origin, to mature the design of an NTP engine specifically optimized for near-term civil science and cislunar missions. These efforts mark a significant step forward in preparation for long-term applications of NTP systems and will build on the foundation laid by NASA and DARPA’s DRACO demonstration.

“This next year is a critical and exciting time for NTP. While we’re optimistic about the hurdles the DRACO program will break through, NTP still needs significant development before it is ready to be deployed as part of a larger mission that moves real payloads in space. This next year will get us prepared for operational missions achieving higher performance after the DRACO demonstration,” said Dr. Vishal Patel, Program Manager for Nuclear Propulsion at Ultra Safe.

For both USNC and its partners, the development of a civil science mission is not just a government program they are subcontractors to, but a clear step on the company’s ambitions for NTP to be part of a robust space economy. “A civil science program, with dedicated funding from NASA, will ensure diverse approaches to the development of NTP and provide significant risk reduction,” said Paolo Venneri, Executive VP at Ultra Safe Nuclear Advanced Technologies. “Both cislunar and deep space science missions, like the ones being explored under this contract, will serve as steppingstones towards both commercial NTP capabilities and a future human mission to Mars.”

Building off its recent delivery of nuclear fuel particles to NASA’s Space Nuclear Propulsion (SNP) program, this contract will see USNC manufacture fuel assemblies for testing in prototypic conditions. “We’ve been hard at work on NTP, bringing our fuel and reactor design closer to production. We’re eager to develop these high-performance NTP systems and demonstrate our unique solution for NTP fuel,” said Dr. Michael Eades, Chief Scientist for Advanced Technologies at Ultra Safe. In addition to building fuel assemblies, USNC will also be building and testing critical safety systems for the NTP engine, a pre-requisite for eventual testing of the integrated nuclear system at a DOE site.

This initiative is expected to build credibility and maintain private cash flow into NTP development by both USNC and its partners, while continuously pushing the government to lower commercial barriers to entry for NTP by advancing the development of fuel and engine testing infrastructure.