The Idaho National Laboratory (INL) is in one of its busiest periods since the 1950s-late 1960s when it hosted the construction of 52 test, special purpose and demonstration nuclear reactors. Back when it was called the National Reactor Testing Station (1948-1974) it played a major role in today’s operating fleet of nuclear reactors, both commercial…
Radiant Nuclear is a dynamic company that has designed, built and transported a complete micro reactor that fits onto the back of a truck. That reactor, named the Kaleidos, will soon be fueled, started and tested through five phases that will include 150 hours at full power without operator assistance. In order to run the…
The Idaho National Laboratory (INL) is best known for its nuclear engineering and pioneering reactor testing programs. Somewhat lesser known is the Lab’s cutting edge research in all other energy sources including wind, solar, hydro, geothermal, biomass and batteries. The Energy and Environment, Science & Technology (EES&T) Directorate, one of five directorates at the Lab,…
The Reactor Pilot Program (RPP) has been a rousing success. The group of four reactor criticalities achieved during the early phases of the RPP mark a major step forward in the process of designing, developing, testing, iterating, refining and licensing new types of nuclear fission power plants that have not yet become commercially viable. The…
Idaho National Laboratory (INL) was born in 1949 as the National Reactor Testing Station after the Atomic Energy Commission decided they needed a place to test controlled nuclear fission power systems. Before being taken over by the AEC, the land was controlled and used by the U.S. Navy to test refurbished weapons, up to and…
MARVEL, a creative acronym meaning Microreactor Applications Research Validation and EvaLuation, is a trail blazing reactor development program designed to help the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) and the nuclear industry remember how to build and operate small nuclear reactors for testing and demonstration. The program was initiated in 2020 and has created many opportunities to…
The dawn of the Golden Era of Nuclear Power in the United States was celebrated on June 25, 2026 with music, lights and inspirational speeches. A crowd of several thousand people at Idaho Falls’s Mountain America Center included nuclear professionals from the Idaho National Lab, representatives from the Department of Energy, local dignitaries and entrepreneurs….
The U.S. military has a strong and growing interest in using small and micro nuclear reactors as a means of reducing logistics challenges and improving operational resilience. They like nuclear reactors for their ability to operate independently of the grid for years without needing any new fuel. Almost as important is their ability to be…
Shine Technologies is a unique nuclear fusion company. The conventional path for nuclear fusion projects is to raise and spend billions of dollars and decades of research and development in efforts to successfully find a path over, around or through the technical barriers that have prevented nuclear fusion from becoming a large scale energy production…
Deployable Energy is a young company with a guiding principle. They believe that nuclear energy should be a product, not a project. Founded in 2025 after a period of intensive study and design work, the company has developed a product branded as the Unity Nuclear Battery (UNB™). It’s a 1 MWe (3 MWth) micro reactor…
There are few industries in the world that have a greater need for skilled communications than the nuclear industry. It’s a challenging technology to understand and to explain to those who are not really interested in the nitty gritty details. There is a significant portion of the industry that believes in silently going about its…
Aalo Atomics is a three year old company that is focused on designing, manufacturing and deploying nuclear reactors. Their stated goal is to achieve an electricity production cost of less than $0.03 (3 cents) per kilowatt hour. It’s moving fast. It built a 40,000 ft² pilot scale manufacturing plant in Austin, TX in just one…
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