This 100-Foot Dome Is Where America Switches On Brand-New Reactors

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Houston-based Deployable Energy will test its 1 MWe Unity nuclear battery at full power inside DOME, Idaho National Laboratory’s 100-foot-tall microreactor test bed, in 2027.

This 100-foot dome at Idaho National Laboratory is where America switches on brand-new reactors. And next in line is a nuclear battery.

It’s called DOME, short for Demonstration of Microreactor Experiments.

And a Houston startup will test an experimental “nuclear battery” here, marking a key milestone for next-generation clean energy.

The DOME is the old containment shell of EBR-II, a reactor that ran here from 1964 to 1994.

In 1986, engineers cut its coolant pumps at full power without touching the control rods, and it shut itself down on its own.

Now it’s a test bay for private companies, opened in April, built for reactors putting out up to 20 megawatts of heat.

Radiant’s Kaleidos microreactor was first through the door. Second, in 2027, is Houston-based Deployable Energy.

The reactor’s called Unity.

It’s helium-cooled, uses water to slow the neutrons, and runs on standard low-enriched uranium, the kind regular power plants use.

The goal is 1 megawatt of electricity, with a refuel every five years.

Unity already went critical at INL this summer, but at zero power, just proving the chain reaction works.

DOME is the real exam. Full power, controls, safety, all of it. And Deployable is paying for it.

2 months ago

Energy

This 100-Foot Dome Is Where America Switches On Brand-New Reactors

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