AMS awarded DOE SBIR Phase I, II grants
Analysis and Measurement Services Corp. (AMS), described in a news release as a market leader in testing the instrumentation and control systems of nuclear power plants worldwide, has been awarded a Phase I research project, as well as a Phase II continuation project through the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program.
The $200,000 Phase I project is the company’s 35th Phase I research grant and will be led by Will Ferrell, an AMS materials and research engineer, the release stated. The research will focus on developing test methods for sensors embedded in nuclear reactor components during the manufacturing or “3D-printing” process.
"These technologies are critical to ensuring that advanced nuclear reactors including micro-modular reactors operate safely and efficiently. This research builds upon AMS’ extensive experience in testing instrumentation within traditional power plants," the news release stated.
The $1.1 million Phase II project is the company’s 27th Phase II research grant and will be led by Brent Shumaker, an AMS senior engineering manager. This research will be a continuation of the successful Phase I project where AMS demonstrated the feasibility of developing an online monitoring (OLM) system for critical structures, systems, and components of microreactors to enable autonomous operations. During this phase of the project, AMS was able to use machine learning and artificial intelligence techniques to identify data anomalies and perform diagnostics, resulting in a conceptual design for an OLM system for microreactor. During the second phase of this project, AMS engineers will work on expanding the capabilities of this technologies and constructing a prototype OLM system for microreactors.
AMS was co-founded in 1977 by its current president and sole owner, H.M. Hashemian, as a spin-off company from research efforts at the University of Tennessee and Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Today, AMS is a global nuclear engineering firm headquartered in Knoxville with representatives in Austria, China, France, South Korea, Spain, and the United Kingdom, providing the worldwide nuclear industry with products and services to measure instrumentation and control (I&C) system performance and to verify compliance with technical specifications and regulatory requirements. In addition to performing field measurements in nuclear power plants, AMS carries out equipment development, laboratory testing, technical training, and high-level technology research and development projects for a number of national and international organizations and governmental agencies.
This article originally appeared on Oakridger: AMS awarded DOE SBIR Phase I, II grants
