Advanced Reactors


Radiant secures funding, moves toward microreactor testing in INL’s DOME

November 25, 2024, 9:36AMNuclear News
A rendering of a data center powered by Radiant's Kaleidos microreactors (shown in the foreground). (Image: Ryan Seper)

Radiant Industries has announced a $100 million Series C funding round to be used primarily to complete its Kaleidos Development Unit (KDU) microreactor for testing in Idaho National Laboratory's Demonstration of Microreactor Experiments (DOME) facility within two years.

NRC okays construction permits for Hermes 2 test facility

November 21, 2024, 7:00AMNuclear News
Concept art for a Hermes plant. (Image: Kairos Power)

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced yesterday that it has directed staff to issue construction permits to Kairos Power for the company's proposed Hermes 2 nonpower test reactor facility to be built at the Heritage Center Industrial Park in Oak Ridge, Tenn. The permits authorize Kairos to build a facility with two 35-MWt test reactors that would use molten salt to cool the reactor cores.

New work for old FLiBe? DOE considers reuse of molten salt reactor coolant

November 7, 2024, 3:00PMNuclear News
A technician prepares salts for use in MSRE in 1964. (Photo: ORNL)

FLiBe—a mixture of lithium fluoride and beryllium fluoride—is not an off-the-shelf commodity. The Department of Energy suspects that researchers and reactor developers may have a use for the 2,000 kilograms of fluoride-based salt that once ran through the secondary coolant loop of the Molten Salt Reactor Experiment (MSRE) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Proposed rule for more flexible licensing under Part 53 is open for comment

October 31, 2024, 3:00PMNuclear News

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has published a proposed rule that has been almost five years in the making: Risk-Informed, Technology-Inclusive Regulatory Framework for Advanced Reactors. The rule, which by law must take its final form before the end of 2027, would establish risk-informed, performance-based techniques the NRC can use to review and license any nuclear power reactor. This is a departure from the two licensing options with light water reactor–specific regulatory requirements that applicants can already choose.

Microreactor developer Ultra Safe Nuclear files for bankruptcy

October 30, 2024, 12:32PMNuclear News

Seattle-based Ultra Safe Nuclear (USNC), developer of a high-temperature, gas-cooled microreactor design that has drawn interest from potential customers and research and development funding from the Department of Energy, announced yesterday that it has filed a petition for Chapter 11 bankruptcy to facilitate its sale to Standard Nuclear Inc. The filing, made in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., includes USNC and its subsidiaries, Ultra Safe Nuclear-Technologies, USNC-Power, and Global First Power.

American Nuclear Society applauds Google's and Amazon's investments in nuclear

October 16, 2024, 10:23AMPress Releases

Washington, D.C. — Craig Piercy, CEO of the American Nuclear Society (ANS), issued the following statement:

"The American Nuclear Society applauds the announced partnerships between Google and Kairos Power and by Amazon and X-energy. Together, these deals will add at least 820 megawatts of zero carbon electricity to the U.S. energy supply. This is a major step toward securing the commercial deployment of advanced nuclear technologies that will make the world a cleaner and more prosperous place."

Liftoff report lifts the lid on cost and risk in push to nth-of-a-kind reactors

October 9, 2024, 12:01PMNuclear News

The Pathways to Commercial Liftoff: Advanced Nuclear report that was released in March 2023 by the Department of Energy called for five to 10 signed reactor contracts for at least one reactor design by 2025. Now, 18 months have passed, and despite the word “resurgence” in media reports on the U.S. nuclear power industry, 2025 is fast approaching with no contracts signed.

Kairos to build salt plant and expand its New Mexico manufacturing campus

October 3, 2024, 12:01PMNuclear News
Kairos Power leaders, elected officials, and key partners break ground on the Salt Production Facility at the company’s Manufacturing Development Campus in Mesa del Sol, N.M. (Photo: Kairos Power)

Kairos Power broke ground yesterday on a Salt Production Facility at the company’s newly dedicated Manufacturing Development Campus during an event at a sprawling site in Mesa del Sol, N.M., just south of Albuquerque. The new facility will produce the FLiBe (a mixture of lithium fluoride and beryllium fluoride salts) needed to cool the advanced reactors Kairos Power plans to build, starting with its Hermes nonpower demonstration reactor in Oak Ridge, Tenn., and could be operational and producing salt in 2026, according to an October 3 Department of Energy news release.

Project Pele is breaking ground in Idaho. What’s involved?

September 26, 2024, 9:30AMNuclear News
Jeff Waksman (left), Project Pele program manager for DOD-SCO, and John Wagner, INL director, at the planned testing site. (Photo: DOD)

The Department of Defense announced September 24 that it has broken ground on the site at Idaho National Laboratory’s Critical Infrastructure Test Range Complex (CITRC) where Project Pele, a transportable 1–5 MWe microreactor, will be tested. The DOD’s Strategic Capabilities Office (SCO) is in charge, on a mission to prove that a mobile microreactor can help meet the DOD’s increasing demand for resilient carbon-free energy for mission-critical operations in remote and austere environments.

NRC signs off on volcanic risk report for TerraPower’s Natrium project

September 25, 2024, 3:00PMNuclear News

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has notified TerraPower that the company has delivered enough information on volcanic risk activity around its proposed small modular reactor project in Kemmemer, Wyo., to satisfy the federal review process.

Westinghouse completes front-end design for eVinci microreactor test

September 23, 2024, 9:30AMNuclear News
Heat pipes transfer heat out of the eVinci microreactor’s core and allow for air cooling without using water or pressurized gas. (Photo: DOE)

Westinghouse Electric Company has completed the front-end engineering and experiment design (FEEED) for a prototype microreactor at Idaho National Laboratory, the Department of Energy recently announced. The one-fifth scale version of eVinci, Westinghouse’s 5-MWe sodium-cooled heat pipe design, is one of three reactors that could be tested at the National Reactor Innovation Center’s (NRIC) DOME test bed “as early as 2026,” the DOE said.

Aalo and Idaho Falls Power reach agreement on potential microreactor siting

September 18, 2024, 12:04PMNuclear News
(Image: City of Idaho Falls)

Microreactor developer Aalo Atomics and municipal electric utility Idaho Falls Power have developed a memorandum of understanding that could lead to the siting of seven sodium-cooled microreactors and a power purchase agreement for Idaho Falls.

Webinar today; Texas A&M seeks proposals for nuclear reactor construction

September 6, 2024, 7:00AMNuclear News

The Texas A&M University System (TAMUS) is seeking proposals from qualified candidates to construct a commercial nuclear reactor on the university’s RELLIS campus in Bryan, Texas.

Interested parties are welcome to attend a virtual preproposal conference today, September 6, at 11:00 a.m. (EDT). Information about this conference, including a link to participate, can be obtained via email to soprocurement@tamus.edu.

Four more Westinghouse AP1000 technology–based reactors approved in China

September 4, 2024, 7:01AMNuclear News

China’s State Council has approved the construction of four new nuclear reactors based on Westinghouse's AP1000 technology at two Chinese power plants. China’s State Power Investment Corporation plans to build two of the reactors at its Bailong nuclear power project in Guangxi Province, where preparatory groundwork construction can now begin at the site. The other two units were approved for the Lufeng nuclear power plant, located in Guangdong Province and owned by China General Nuclear Power Corporation, where sitework has already begun.

Westinghouse AP300 SMR application filed with UK regulator

August 27, 2024, 7:00AMNuclear News
Concept art of a Westinghouse AP300 SMR. (Image: Westinghouse)

The United Kingdom’s Department of Energy Security and Net Zero has signed off on Westinghouse’s AP300 small modular reactor earlier this month.