Reactor Pilot Program

  • Airmen assigned to the 452nd Logistics Readiness Squadron Aerial Port Flight support loading operations of the Valar Atomics Ward 250 reactor onto a C-17 Globemaster III at March Air Reserve Base, Calif., Feb. 15, 2026. The mission, called "Operation Windlord," marked the first military airlift of a microreactor and transported the Ward 250 to Hill Air Force Base, Utah, en route to the San Rafael Energy Lab test site. Courtesy: Valar Atomics
    advanced nuclear

    Valar Atomic’s Ward 250 Becomes Second Reactor to Go Critical Under DOE Pilot Program

    Valar Atomics has achieved self-sustaining criticality and completed zero-power testing at Ward 250, its Gen IV tri-structural isotropic (TRISO)-fueled modular high-temperature gas reactor (HTGR), at the Utah San Rafael Energy Lab in Emery County. The project is the second advanced reactor to go critical under the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Reactor Pilot Program and the first DOE-authorized […]

  • Aerial conceptual rendering of an Oklo Aurora powerhouse facility, showing the compact modular design of the liquid-metal-cooled fast reactor. Courtesy: Oklo Inc.
    Nuclear

    In a First for Advanced Nuclear: Siemens Energy Turbine Package Advances for Oklo’s Aurora-INL

    The steam turbine and generator package for Oklo’s first Aurora powerhouse at Idaho National Laboratory (INL)—a pioneering application of a commercially established industrial turbine platform at the heart of a first-of-a-kind advanced reactor’s conventional island—is in active production at Siemens Energy’s facilities in Görlitz and Erfurt, Germany. In details provided to POWER, both companies confirmed the […]

  • Fig2-Triso-Layers-Micro-BWXT
    Nuclear

    DOE Allocates Second Round of HALEU Fuel to Three U.S. Nuclear Companies

    The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has unveiled three more companies to which it will allocate high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) under conditional commitments in a bid to support advanced reactor development and domestic fuel production. The Aug. 26 announcement marks the second round of allocations under DOE’s HALEU Availability Program but it links to two […]