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Launching into tomorrow: NRIC guides new era of research and deployment
In June 2025, the Department of Energy announced the Reactor Pilot Program, an authorization pathway that allowed reactor developers to partner with the DOE to get first-of-a-kind (FOAK) reactors built and tested. Soon after, the DOE rolled out a complementary Fuel Line Pilot Program, which aimed to fast-track fuel projects. In all, 20 projects were accepted into the new programs.
Eric V. Steinfelds, James S. Tulenko
Nuclear Technology | Volume 174 | Number 1 | April 2011 | Pages 119-123
Technical Paper | Energy Conversion Systems Using Radioisotopes | doi.org/10.13182/NT11-A11685
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The paper describes a micronuclear battery that utilizes the conversion of beta particles into photons and back into electrons through a photoelectric cell to potentially deliver a nuclear battery of higher efficiency than other nuclear battery concepts and with much greater energy per gram and lifetime than chemical batteries. The Monte Carlo nuclear code MCNP has been used to analyze the performance of the proposed battery, and the photoelectric stage has been shown to be insensitive to the expected radiation for at least 1 yr of performance.