Latest news with #ScottForney
Miami Herald
24-06-2025
- Business
- Miami Herald
General Atomics Achieves Another Milestone in Silicon Carbide Composite Nuclear Fuel Rod Technology
SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA / ACCESS Newswire / June 24, 2025 / General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems (GA-EMS) announced today that it has reached another significant milestone in the development and testing of its SiGA® Silicon Carbide (SiC) nuclear fuel cladding technology. Recent performance testing on GA-EMS' patented, localized SiC joining method has shown excellent performance under the corrosive water conditions expected in the current fleet of pressurized water nuclear reactors, marking a significant step in advancing the readiness of SiGA cladding for reactor testing. SiGA is an engineered, multilayer composite cladding structure that offers high temperature performance and other operational benefits for current and future nuclear reactors. "Our patented local joining process seals the fuel rods without exposing the nuclear fuel pellets to high temperature water," said Scott Forney, president of GA-EMS. "Our SiC cladding and localized joining method form a complete solution to fully and safely contain the solid fuel and enable it to withstand temperatures six times greater than the expected light-water, pressurized water reactor conditions. The local SiC joining process is also proving to reduce processing time, supporting the scale-up of efficient domestic manufacturing capability to provide safe accident tolerant fuel cladding for the nuclear fleet." Fuel cladding is a barrier between the reactor coolant and nuclear fuel pellets and is essential to protecting the fuel while also ensuring the safety of a nuclear power plant. Fuel is stacked into cladding tubes and the ends of the tubes are joined to form hermetic seals for the fuel rods. GA-EMS' SiGA cladding offers superior high temperature and irradiation resistance which can significantly improve the operating performance, economic efficiency, and safety of light water reactors. "We've successfully verified irradiation resistance of our ceramic joints at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory High Flux Isotope Reactor test reactor," said Dr. Christina Back, vice president of GA-EMS Nuclear Technologies and Materials. "Now, GA-EMS is working to evaluate the quality of the SiGA joints under the high temperature, high pressure, and corrosive water coolant environment expected in pressurized water reactors. We achieved a critical milestone this past month, with results confirming that joints fabricated by our local SiC joining process remained gas-tight after 180-days of exposure in Westinghouse's reactor coolant test facility. It is very exciting to be moving to the ultimate demonstration of joint performance testing in the Advanced Test Reactor at Idaho National Laboratory in the presence of both corrosive water coolant and neutron irradiation." Acknowledgment: Based upon work supported by the US Department of Energy under Award No. DE-NE0009235 "SiC Cladding Development." Contact InformationGeneral Atomics Electromagnetic Systems Media Relations ems-mediarelations@ SOURCE: General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems press release
Miami Herald
08-05-2025
- Business
- Miami Herald
General Atomics Awarded U.S. Space Force Contract for Phase 2 of the Enterprise Space Terminal Program
SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA / ACCESS Newswire / May 8, 2025 / General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems (GA-EMS) announced today that it has been awarded a contract by the U.S. Space Force (USSF) Space Systems Command (SSC) for Phase 2 of the Enterprise Space Terminal (EST) program. This Phase 2 contract award was issued through the Space Enterprise Consortium (SpEC) via an Other Transaction Agreement (OTA). The EST program is an enterprise optical communications solution to enhance mission effectiveness by providing resilient, high-capacity communication solutions for Department of Defense (DoD) space platforms operating primarily in beyond Low Earth Orbit (bLEO) regimes at crosslink ranges from 10,000 to 80,000 kilometers while maintaining the ability to operate in the LEO regime. "GA-EMS, under a Phase 1 contract award, leveraged its extensive Optical Communication Terminal (OCT) expertise to develop a design that can be efficiently scaled to deploy a mesh network enterprise of OCTs with capabilities to transfer large volumes of data between spacecraft and ground stations distributed across a wide spectrum of operational domains," said Scott Forney, president of GA-EMS. "We are excited to enter Phase 2 to advance our system design and begin the build and test of the OCT subsystems." Phase 2 will include lab demonstrations of OCT subsystems within a government provided test bed. GA-EMS will continue design and analyses activities to optimize the system designs. Testing results and analyses will then be presented during a Critical Design Review (CDR) at the end of Phase 2 period of performance. "The Phase 2 CDR will help inform the decision gate toward entering Phase 3 of the program, which will call for the assembly, test, and delivery of an integrated prototype OCT system for demonstration on a government provided test bed," said Gregg Burgess, vice president of GA-EMS Space Systems. "We look forward to delivering a robust, producible Optical Communication Terminal for the Space Force to ensure resilient space network connectivity for future National Security Space Architectures." GA-EMS completed the preliminary design of the payload support system, electrical hardware, laser terminal design, optical design and subsystem, thermal control, and command and data handling under the EST Phase 1 contract awarded in 2024. As prime contractor, GA-EMS has teamed with L3Harris for the modem subsystem and Advanced Space to provide performance modelling. SOURCE: General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems press release
Yahoo
08-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
General Atomics Awarded U.S. Space Force Contract for Phase 2 of the Enterprise Space Terminal Program
SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA / / May 8, 2025 / General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems (GA-EMS) announced today that it has been awarded a contract by the U.S. Space Force (USSF) Space Systems Command (SSC) for Phase 2 of the Enterprise Space Terminal (EST) program. This Phase 2 contract award was issued through the Space Enterprise Consortium (SpEC) via an Other Transaction Agreement (OTA). The EST program is an enterprise optical communications solution to enhance mission effectiveness by providing resilient, high-capacity communication solutions for Department of Defense (DoD) space platforms operating primarily in beyond Low Earth Orbit (bLEO) regimes at crosslink ranges from 10,000 to 80,000 kilometers while maintaining the ability to operate in the LEO regime. "GA-EMS, under a Phase 1 contract award, leveraged its extensive Optical Communication Terminal (OCT) expertise to develop a design that can be efficiently scaled to deploy a mesh network enterprise of OCTs with capabilities to transfer large volumes of data between spacecraft and ground stations distributed across a wide spectrum of operational domains," said Scott Forney, president of GA-EMS. "We are excited to enter Phase 2 to advance our system design and begin the build and test of the OCT subsystems." Phase 2 will include lab demonstrations of OCT subsystems within a government provided test bed. GA-EMS will continue design and analyses activities to optimize the system designs. Testing results and analyses will then be presented during a Critical Design Review (CDR) at the end of Phase 2 period of performance. "The Phase 2 CDR will help inform the decision gate toward entering Phase 3 of the program, which will call for the assembly, test, and delivery of an integrated prototype OCT system for demonstration on a government provided test bed," said Gregg Burgess, vice president of GA-EMS Space Systems. "We look forward to delivering a robust, producible Optical Communication Terminal for the Space Force to ensure resilient space network connectivity for future National Security Space Architectures." GA-EMS completed the preliminary design of the payload support system, electrical hardware, laser terminal design, optical design and subsystem, thermal control, and command and data handling under the EST Phase 1 contract awarded in 2024. As prime contractor, GA-EMS has teamed with L3Harris for the modem subsystem and Advanced Space to provide performance modelling. Contact Information General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems Media Relations ems-mediarelations@ SOURCE: General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire
Miami Herald
16-04-2025
- Business
- Miami Herald
General Atomics PERSES Waste Destruction System Scheduled to Destroy PFAS at Lake Elmo, Minnesota Site
On-Site, Industrial Scale PFAS and Other Organic Waste Destruction to Commence SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA / ACCESS Newswire / April 16, 2025 / General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems (GA-EMS) announced today that its commercial PERSES™ waste destruction system will be delivered to a Lake Elmo, Minnesota waste management facility to demonstrate the system's industrial-scale capabilities to destroy a variety of per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) waste streams. GA-EMS was awarded a contract by Bay West LLC, an environmental and remediation company leading the research program funded by the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) to deliver, install, and operate PERSES for multiple project demonstrations to destroy PFAS and PFAS contaminated waste media. The system will be at the Lake Elmo site for about 4 weeks and then removed to other sites for additional tests under different contracts. "Minnesota's government leadership, as well as states across the nation are actively implementing strategies to eliminate PFAS from the environment and mitigate the adverse effects these "forever chemicals" have on public health and safety," said Scott Forney, president of GA-EMS. "We are excited to bring the destruction power of PERSES to Lake Elmo as local, state, and federal government agencies continue to evaluate PERSES' capabilities to eliminate PFAS from a myriad of waste streams. We appreciate the efforts the Lake Elmo city council and local community have made to support this project and look forward to a successful demonstration program." In 2024, Bay West conducted testing at the GA-EMS full-scale testing facility in San Diego and provided ERDC results analysis to verify PERSES 99.99% and greater PFAS destruction efficiency in a variety of waste media from both government and commercial supplied sources. The delivery of PERSES to the Lake Elmo facility is the next step in the project to commence on-site, industrial-scale destruction of PFAS and other organic waste in media including Aqueous Film-Forming Foam (AFFF), landfill leachate, biosolid "sludge", soils and sediment, and granular activated carbon (GAC) and resin beads from filtration treatment systems. Bay West, LLC, a nationally recognized environmental consulting and remediation company headquartered in St. Paul, Minnesota, provides solutions to government and commercial enterprises to navigate complex environmental concerns and ongoing remediation challenges. ERDC is an integral component of the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering and helps solve the nation's most challenging civil and military engineering, geospatial sciences, water resources, and environmental sciences for the Army, DoD, civilian agencies and for the nation's public good. Contact Information General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems Media Relations ems-mediarelations@ SOURCE: General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems press release
Yahoo
09-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
US-Israeli industry team pitches ‘Bullseye' long-range missile
THE HAGUE, Netherlands — General Atomics and Israel's Rafael Advanced Defense Systems are teaming up to produce a long-range precision-guided missile for the U.S. market, the companies announced this week. The weapon, dubbed Bullseye, will be launchable from the sea, land and air, with the developers promising 'significant attack performance against high-value targets at an affordable price point.' 'We're getting lessons learned on cost reduction, and we'll build at least half the missile in the United States,' Scott Forney, President of General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems, was quoted as saying by Naval News. Development of the weapon was announced at the Sea-Air-Space 2025 conference in Maryland. The Bullseye missile appears to be derived from Rafael's Ice Breaker system, which has a 300-kilometer (186 miles) range. Unlike Ice Breaker, however, the new missile will be able to carry various warheads and propulsion systems, General Atomics said on the new product's web page. The weapon's makers also highlighted the 'very low observable' stealth characteristics, autonomous target recognition, and resilience in GPS-denied environments. Autonomous target recognition has been an area of concern for defense researchers but no comprehensive international rules yet exist on the level of human involvement that a weapons system must have. General Atomics bills the Bullseye as 'fully autonomous with man-in-the-loop decision back-up capability' on the company's spec sheet. The missile will also be equipped with 'advanced mission planning' and 'synchronized attack capability.' The new missile has reportedly reached Technology Readiness Level 8, with Rafael having already completed aerodynamics, engine, seeker and launch integration testing. The missile is compatible with jet fighters, light attack aircraft, helicopters, small maritime vessels and ground vehicles, the arms manufacturer said. Initial deliveries are slated for late 2025, General Atomics said. The partnership seeks to leverage Rafael's combat-proven missile technology—including systems like Iron Dome and Spike missiles—with GA-EMS's U.S.-based manufacturing expertise in Tupelo, Mississippi. It also highlights the continuing close ties between the two countries' defense establishments at a time when other traditional U.S. partners have been estranged.
