The DOE is handing out its roses.
A few months after the Trump administration put out four executive orders making nuclear energy development a key national priority, the DOE has named the first participants in a new program intended to get advanced reactors up and running—fast. The 11 projects selected for the Nuclear Reactor Pilot Program will be vying to reach criticality by July 4 of next year. Auspicious, indeed.
The department selected 10 companies and 11 projects to participate in the program. (We see you overachieving with two projects, Oklo.) The selected companies are:
- Aalo Atomics
- Antares Nuclear
- Atomic Alchemy
- Deep Fission
- Last Energy
- Oklo
- Natura Resources
- Radiant Industries
- Terrestrial Energy
- Valar Atomics
“The DOE is opening the door to the market so new ideas, new approaches, and new designs can be built more quickly and efficiently,” Oklo CEO Jacob DeWitte said in a company statement. “American innovation is one of our strategic advantages, and the DOE’s selection of a number of projects provides a sweeping injection of urgency to meet the moment and unleash American nuclear innovation.”
Gotta go fast: These companies are taking widely varying approaches, from Antares’ kilowatt-scale reactor design to Terrestrial Energy’s larger 195-MW molten salt reactor architecture to Valar Atomics’ plan to build gigasites of SMRs to generate hydrocarbons. What they all have in common: a machine with a <300 MW output, and a desire to turn that machine on quickly.
- That desire to build quickly runs deep. Several of the companies selected for the program—including Last Energy, Valar Atomics, and Deep Fission—are currently suing the NRC over its authority to regulate advanced reactors.
- One of the May executive orders assured advanced reactor applicants that the approval timeline would be shortened to 18 months.
Planning ahead: The DOE doesn’t expect all 11 projects to turn on a reactor by next summer. The goal, rather, is to get three projects to criticality before July 4. The breadth of approaches gives the agency more shots on goal for developing an actual working advanced reactor.
Still, as Deputy Secretary of Energy James Danly said in a release, “These companies aim to all safely achieve criticality by Independence Day, and DOE will do everything we can to support their efforts.”
Lead Reporter of Ignition
