INL

Enercon Federal Services (ENERCON) was recently awarded a prime contract with Battelle Energy Alliance, LLC (BEA), to provide engineering design work in support of the National Reactor Innovation Center (NRIC) Demonstration of Operational Microreactor Experiments (DOME) project at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL). ENERCON will be supporting the BEA’s objective to convert an unused, partially […]

In the decade following World War II, the U.S. government took a keen interest in helping to create a commercial nuclear power industry. Although there were military leaders and members of Congress who

NASA’s next-generation Mars rover Perseverance, which successfully launched on July 30 atop an Atlas 5 rocket from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, will depend on a “nuclear battery” for electrical power when it completes its seven-month journey to the Red Planet.   Idaho National Laboratory (INL) celebrated the launch of the rover, […]

TerraPower and X-energy will each receive $80 million in initial federal funding under the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program (ARDP) to build their two distinct advanced nuclear reactors and begin operating them within seven years.  Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette made the much-awaited announcement about the first ARDP awards in a brief Twitter […]

The Versatile Test Reactor (VTR), a planned experimental fast neutron reactor that the Department of Energy (DOE) says is crucial to support domestic advanced nuclear reactor research and development has cleared “Critical Decision 1,” paving the way for the engineering design phase to begin. Critical Decision 1—also known as “Approve Alternative Selection and Cost Range”—is […]

What will it realistically take to ready a fission surface power system (FSP)—a small (maybe modular) nuclear reactor—for deployment on the moon by 2027? That’s essentially what Battelle Energy Alliance LLC (BEA), the Department of Energy (DOE), and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) are asking the private sector in an interesting request for […]

In Part 1 of this series, published in the March 2020 issue, POWER explored how existing reactors may leverage advances in nuclear fuel to boost power generation safety and economics. This installment surveys

Oklo, developer of the 1.5-MW Aurora micro-reactor, has submitted the first-ever combined license application (COLA) for an advanced non-light water reactor (LWR) to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). The move formalizes the start of a new era for nuclear regulation in the U.S. The Silicon Valley company, which last year received a first-of-its-kind site use […]

In an exclusive interview, executives from Silicon Valley–based Oklo, a company Idaho National Laboratory (INL) chose this week to demonstrate the first-of-its-kind use of recycled high-assay, low-enriched uranium (HALEU) fuel in its full-size Aurora micro-reactor, told POWER that the project could have broad implications for the future of nuclear power. Marking a significant boost for […]

Oklo, developer of a 1.5-MW passive compact fast reactor, will be the first to receive high-assay, low-enriched uranium (HALEU) nuclear fuel from Idaho National Laboratory (INL) to aid a first-of-its-kind demonstration of its Aurora microreactor, which could begin in 2024. Marking a significant boost for advanced nuclear innovation, which industry experts are banking on to […]