Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry
U.S. Department of Energy
November, 2009

Japan and the United States, recognizing the importance and urgency of achieving a global low-carbon economy and a sustainable and secure energy future, have agreed to accelerate joint research on clean energy technologies. This work is motivated by the recognition that new scientific game-changing breakthroughs and the resulting transformative technologies will be required to achieve these common goals.

Japan and the United States share strong diversified scientific capabilities. Since the beginning of 2009, our two countries have sponsored several visits of scientific experts to each other’s laboratories. As a result, Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), affiliated with the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), and five Department of Energy (DOE) national laboratories (NREL, SNL, LANL, LLNL, LBNL) signed Memorandum of Understandings (MOUs) in May 2009. Japan and the United States will encourage the development of mutually beneficial energy science and technology projects through these MOUs, and other MOUs and additional mechanisms for cooperation that may be developed.

METI and DOE will monitor activities under this Action Plan and add new research projects as they are developed. Both sides view this cooperation as an opportunity to advance the science needed by doing more, at shared, and thus lower, costs, and at a more rapid pace than either country could achieve working separately. Through this enhanced cooperation on clean energy research, we can accelerate our collective progress toward a clean and secure global energy future.

Basic research related to the following projects* may contribute to fundamental understanding of materials such as understanding of the structure / property relations and reaction mechanisms and to the development of new materials. In addition, both countries intend to explore opportunities for joint research on fundamental components that contribute to significant reduction of CO2 for future generations.

Artificial Photosynthesis

Research project to produce H2 and fix CO2 at efficiencies that exceed best observed photosynthesis/coupling H2 evolution with CO2 capture and reducing the CO2 to a fuel or fuel intermediate/create materials and novel architectures for manipulating and understanding charge separation as well as self-healing functional materials; develop cost effective synthesis for large area deposition; develop rapid throughput synthesis and screening approaches to generate leads for materials discovery.

Create Dye-Sensitized photocells to generate hydrogen from solar photons

Joint research to discover new dyes, non-precious group metal dyes and new ligand-sets for improved durability.

Novel Energy Storage or Conversion Devices utilizing Nanotechnology

Joint research to develop novel energy storage or conversion devices such as hybrid capacitors, electrochemical reactors and thermo-electric devices utilizing nano structured materials, and high endothermic thermal to chemical energy converters.

Hydrogen Storage Materials

Joint research to improve efficiency and safety of hydrogen storage materials; advance the fundamental understanding of hydrogen adsorption and desorption mechanism

Fuel Cells

Joint research to develop materials for next generation fuel cells with improved capacity and duration; advance the fundamental understanding of the properties and structures of electrode or electrolyte materials using advanced materials characterization techniques and simulations

Computational Science for Energy Related Materials

Joint research to design and analyze materials for energy applications through large-scale molecular dynamics simulation of self-organized structure. Possible examples are a bio-sensing device with stable lipid bilayer membrane and a quantum dot solar cell with very high conversion efficiency.

* DOE’s Office of Science funds basic research on the basis of a competitive process involving peer review of submitted proposals. Researchers interested in the projects proposed in this area may contact the Office of Science to find out if a specific fundamental problem is of interest to its programs. If there is mutual interest, the Office of Science may encourage submission of a full proposal for review. If selected for funding, the Office of Science will fund the U.S. side of the project.

Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is a critical technology for significantly reducing carbon dioxide emissions from energy production and other industrial activities. Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from coal-fired electricity currently account for one-third of total CO2 emissions in the United States. Three issues will determine the success of CCS technologies: addressing risk, addressing costs, and understanding technologies tradeoffs and the value of long-term investments. Reducing the cost of capture technologies requires integration of efforts from basic research through R&D or large-scale demonstration. To address these issues, METI and DOE agree to undertake the following:

Modeling, Testing and Data Sharing

Joint efforts to identify, predict, monitor and mitigate risks are needed to overcome resistance to deployment of CCS technologies. Both countries recognize that joint collaboration on CCS can advance the technologies more quickly on the road towards commercialization. Participation and cooperation on modeling, testing and data sharing could bring us closer to science based decision making at significantly reduced costs to both countries.

Project Development

Joint research on selected technologies focused on speeding the development of CCS technologies will begin quickly. Specific projects will develop, verify, validate, and demonstrate new capture methods and power generation systems that can couple effectively with capture.

Simulation tools and Monitoring

The two countries will form a partnership in development of simulation tools of long-term CO2 behavior, cost-effective & multilateral monitoring methods and research on relations between CO2 injection experiments and seismicity to be addressed and tested. The results can inform international discussions on the viability of this technology.

Energy Efficient Building Technology

Japan and the United States commit to significantly increase collaboration in the Building Technologies area. Both countries have very high energy consumption in the building sector, which is responsible for large amounts of electricity and carbon emissions. In addition to technology briefings and site visits, collaboration on net zero energy building demonstrations with the most advanced Japanese and U.S. technologies will be considered. These projects also may include supplier workshops to showcase advanced products in both countries. Future discussions are being planned to determine next steps, along with determination of specific technological opportunities.

Okinawa - Hawaii Demonstration Project

Japan and the United States will establish a task force to evaluate the achievements of existing clean energy projects in Okinawa and Hawaii to enable the islands to be energy independent, including micro-grid projects, and to develop additional activities to help the two islands share experiences and knowledge.

Electric Vehicles

Japan and the United States will enhance existing cooperation and form a working group to develop joint positions on standards for electric vehicle components for presentation to international standards bodies. Japan and the United States will explore the possible joint demonstration of EVs and DC quick chargers.

Smart Grid

Japan and the United States will consider areas for joint activities related to smart grid technologies and policies. These activities may include collaboration on standards development where such collaboration has the potential to promote more rapid implementation of international standards and trade in these technologies, and demonstration projects where such projects serve to inform research and promote more rapid deployment of Smart Grid technologies.

METI and DOE will form a team to develop ideas for collaboration in other renewable technologies, including solar, wind, and biomass. Ideas developed and approved by both sides will be added to the Action Plan. Possible activities may include:

• A concentrating PV (CPV) demonstration that would compare CPV systems (one Japanese system and one U.S. system) deployed in Japan (a fairly cloudy environment) with sister systems deployed in the United States (in a sunny location).
• R&D on biochemical and thermochemical conversion processes for advanced biofuels.

Japan and the United States are fully committed to deploying nuclear energy, both domestically and globally, and are planning to significantly expanding their nuclear energy complexes. Japan and the United States are pursuing many of the same nuclear energy technology goals and so face many of the same technical challenges. Japan and the United States already have significant nuclear energy cooperation under the Japan - U.S. Joint Nuclear Energy Action Plan and will build, where feasible, on existing programs in those areas such as fourth generation technologies and advanced fuel cycle technologies. We strongly believe that Japan - U.S. collaboration on nuclear technology development can save both countries considerable time and money. The areas listed below are part of a significant number of mutually beneficial, potential joint projects that will be undertaken on nuclear technology. Discussions will be on-going to develop “shovel ready” projects as additional funding becomes available over the next several years. Joint research projects in the following areas are recommended:

Effective Use of Existing Facilities

Both countries are interested in using existing facilities effectively. For example, DOE has a Light Water Reactor (LWR) Sustainability R&D program to develop the scientific basis for long-term licensing and operation of the existing fleet for up to 60 years and beyond. Also, existing U.S. facilities constantly show high capacity factor and have experiences with improving turbine output. Japan also has a large fleet of commercial LWRs and a similar interest. Cooperative research will be undertaken using safety analysis methods and simulations tools for predicting and managing plant response and safety margins to support and guide plant operations, maintenance, major components replacement and plant licensing decisions. Both METI and DOE will encourage the participation of regulatory authorities from both countries. This program could provide significant cost savings.

Gas Cooled Reactor Technology

Both countries are developing high temperature gas cooled reactor technology, which, with its unique TRISO fuel design can provide higher temperatures and deeper burning of fuel than other reactor types. Collaboration on modeling of TRISO fuel performance, investigation of graphite properties under irradiation and investigation of fuel fabrication and post-irradiation processing methods to enhance the efficiency of recycling or disposal of the TRISO fuel will be undertaken. Japan is currently operating a high temperature gas reactor and has the only commercial vendor making TRISO fuel. The United States is a leader in the computational modeling and simulation required for the proposed program. Both countries will benefit significantly.

Advanced Simulations for Enhanced Seismic Safety of Nuclear Power Plants

The Japanese have experienced the potential impact of seismic events with the damage and two-year closure of the seven reactors at the Kashiwazaki nuclear power station. The two sides will undertake collaborative work on the application of modern, three dimensional computational modeling of nuclear plant systems. This joint project will draw on the computational capabilities of the Japan Atomic Energy Agency and DOE and utilize the unique earthquake response measurement data obtained from past cases to inform the development of next-generation plant models. DOE will benefit from the significant R&D investment of the Japanese and access to the significant earthquake response information obtained from past cases. Japan will benefit from the extensive computational capabilities of the DOE national laboratories and extensive experience in seismic analysis.

Waste Vitrification Research and Development

Both Japan and DOE have large programs to develop and improve high level waste vitrification technologies. The United States is a world leader. The Japanese have developed a Joule-Heated Ceramic-lined Melter. Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) has developed technologies that can provide benefits to Japan. The U.S. team would learn about the operations and dismantlement program in Japan that could improve the operation of U.S. facilities in anticipation of the melters to be built at Hanford. The two countries will consider forming a partnership team to begin this exchange of information.

Joint Japan - U.S. Collaboration on the Development of Sensors for Under Sodium Inspection of Liquid Metal Fast Reactors

A key issue with operation and maintenance of sodium cooled fast reactors is the inability to see details within the sodium coolant. Both Japan and the United States have worked on sodium viewing systems. Collaboration will include information exchanges on sensors for viewing and/or inspecting in-core structure and on remote-handling systems. The Japanese will contribute their expertise in operation and maintenance of liquid metal fast reactors and associated remote handling systems. Similarly, the United States will contribute its expertise in ultrasonic viewing systems, enhanced sodium wetting methods for under-sodium piezoelectric transducer and computer modeling support to estimate performance of under-sodium imager designs. This collaboration could yield considerable cost and schedule savings associated with system development.

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