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2025 ANS Winter Conference & Expo
November 9–12, 2025
Washington, DC|Washington Hilton
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Radiant to build first microreactor at Tenn. Manhattan Project site
Radiant Industries will build its first portable nuclear reactor at the site of the Manhattan Project in Oak Ridge, Tenn.
The land for Radiant’s new factory includes portions of the K-27 and K-29 Manhattan Project sites. The company plans to test Kaleidos, a 1-MW nuclear microreactor, in 2026, with first deployments expected soon after.
Ronald G. Ballinger, Jeongyoun Lim
Nuclear Technology | Volume 147 | Number 3 | September 2004 | Pages 418-435
Technical Paper | Medium-Power Lead-Alloy Reactors | doi.org/10.13182/NT04-A3540
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The viability of advanced Pb- or Pb-Bi-cooled fast reactor systems will depend on the development of classes of materials that can operate over the temperature range 650-1200°C. We briefly review the current state of the technology concerning the interaction of Pb and Pb-Bi alloys with structural materials. We then identify the key challenges to successful use of materials in these systems and suggest a path forward to the development of new materials and operating methods to allow higher-temperature operation. Our focus is on the necessary trade-offs that must be considered and how these trade-offs influence R&D choices. Our analysis suggests that three classes of materials will be needed for successful deployment of a lead-alloy-cooled reactor system. A lower-temperature qualified material will be necessary for the pressure boundary. The structural and cladding materials will require 1000°C- and 1200°C-class materials. The 1000°C-class material will be exposed to the 1000°C coolant. The 1200°C-class material will be required for the cladding and structural materials in the core region. The higher-temperature material will be required to accommodate anticipated temperature transients from potential accident scenarios, such as a loss of flow.