This paper discusses modification of the U.S. Department ofEnergy’s (DOE) Technology Readiness Assessment Guide foruse in the Office of Nuclear Energy’s Nuclear TechnologyResearch and Development (NTRD) program. The DOEGuide describes an approach for identifying and managingtechnology risks in large construction projects to ensuretechnology development is part of the project baseline andtechnology maturity is sufficiently advanced before includinga technology in the facility design. The process includes theidentification of Critical Technology Elements (CTEs),followed by in-depth evaluation of Technology ReadinessLevels (TRLs) and development of Technology MaturationPlans (TMPs) for those CTEs. This approach was modifiedand augmented to instead support an ongoing researchprogram. This included developing subject tracks to betterorganize the evaluations that determine the level ofknowledge/maturation of the CTEs and developing maturationtask sequence diagrams that roll up into technologyroadmaps. A trial application of the approach was performedfor a complete advanced nuclear fuel cycle (from uraniummining to waste disposal). The paper includes lessons learnedfrom this application.
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