The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Nuclear Energy, through this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA), seeks to facilitate the development of innovative SMR designs that have the potential to address the nation?s economic, environmental and energy security goals. Specifically, the DOE is soliciting applications for SMR designs that offer unique and innovative features that can serve to improve nuclear safety, operability, efficiency, economics, security, and performance over existing plants and previously certified nuclear plant designs and that can achieve NRC design certification on a schedule that supports deployment in the 2025 timeframe. Program funding will be provided at a minimum of 50% industry cost-share and a maximum of 50% Federal cost-share to the awardee(s) for the purposes of completing design development and certification efforts for innovative SMR design projects. The total Government funding available for any si ngle award under this FOA shall not exceed $226M over five (5) years, subject to availability of funds. This FOA is available at Fedconnect (https://www.fedconnect.net) under reference number DE-FOA-0000800. Any Government obligation under this program is contingent upon the availability of appropriated funds from which payment for award purposes can be made. No legal liability on the part of the Government for any payment may arise until funds are made available to the Contracting Officer, notice of award is made to the recipient by the Contracting Officer, and the recipient receives notice of such availability of funds, to be confirmed in writing by the Contracting Officer. Applications in response to this FOA must be submitted through Grants.gov. DOE intends to allow for approximately 120 days for applicant response to this FOA. The application due date is July 1, 2013. INDUSTRY DAY FOR THE FUNDING OPPORTUNITY ANNOUNCEMENT (FOA): "COST-SHARED DEVELOPMENT OF INNOVATIVE SMALL MODULAR REACTOR DESIGNS?: The Department's Office of Nuclear Energy will hold an Industry Day on May 15, 2013 to respond to potential applicant questions and to provide clarification on the content of the subject FOA. The Industry Day meeting will be held at the Bethesda North Marriott Hotel and Conference Center in Bethesda, MD. Details on this Industry Day and the hotel are provided at the registration website identified below. Interested parties are encouraged to review the FOA and submit any questions, comments, suggestions, or concerns to DOE on or before April 30, 2013. Questions may be submitted either through the FedConnect portal (identified in the FOA) or directly to DOE at the following email address:
[email protected]. DOE will make every effort to address questions submitted at the Industry Day. Please note, the April 30, 2013 deadline does not preclude potential applicants from submitting additional questions, comments, suggestions or concerns to DOE until 10 calendar days prior to the application due date (see FOA Part VII, Section A). Attendees are expected to register for this meeting at http://www.alleghenyst.com/doe/smrindustrydayregistration/, where more details on the industry day are provided. DOE will post an Industry Day Briefing within 10 calendar days of the meeting on the FedConnect portal.