Engineers have started building the United States’ first “microreactor”, a 1.5MW mobile nuclear reactor compact enough to be shipped in four standard shipping containers.
BWXT Advanced Technologies is now fabricating the unit’s steel core at its Innovation Campus in Lynchburg, Virginia.
The prototype is expected to produce electricity in 2028.
“Project Pele”, as the effort is known, was initiated by the US Department of Defense’s Strategic Capabilities Office in 2016 with the aim of supplying military bases with reliable power.
Partners include the Department of Energy, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Corps of Engineers and industry partners.
The reactor will have a high-temperature gas-cooled design, and will be fuelled by “tri-structural Isotropic particle” fuel, or Triso for short. The Department of Energy describes this as “the most robust nuclear fuel on Earth”.
BWXT, a former subsidiary of US engineer Babcock & Wilcox, was brought onto the project in June 2022. Other private sector partners include aerospace company Northrop Grumman and UK engineer Rolls-Royce.
Northrop will fabricate the control module for the reactor and Rolls-Royce is developing the power conversion module at its Liberty Works plant in Indianapolis, Indiana.
BWXT president Kate Kelly said the microreactor could be a “reliable, resilient source of electricity and heat for multiple applications”, including disaster response and power generation in remote locations.
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