Research lab
US Department of Energy national laboratory in Idaho focused on nuclear energy research, testing advanced reactors, microreactors, and fuel materials.
University of Pittsburgh researchers tested a fiber-optic sensor for signals above 100 kHz on a mock spent-fuel canister at Idaho National Laboratory. The sounds came from pencil-lead breaks, so detection of real cracks is still untested.
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DOE approved added cost-shared funding to speed the Molten Chloride Reactor Experiment toward criticality as early as 2027. That date is a developer target, and it would give designers their first measured data on a design they have so far only modeled.
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DOE has selected Deployable Energy's Unity microreactor for a full-power test at Idaho National Laboratory's DOME facility in 2027. It is the first Unity test aimed at the questions an off-grid buyer asks about delivery and removal, though it stops short of a license.
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Penn State's team won $1 million from the Department of Energy to track samarium, europium and tellurium in molten salt reactors and recycling systems. The money pays for lab measurement of how those elements behave in salt, the step any recycling or corrosion fix has to start from.
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Natura Resources says it now holds the coolant for its MSR-1 demonstration reactor, shipped from Oak Ridge through Idaho National Laboratory to the Abilene Christian University site on September 18. It won the material in a DOE competition.
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The collaboration with the Idaho National Laboratory Foundation, EXP and Premier Technology covers licensing, manufacturing and training. Testing at a Department of Energy laboratory would take separate agreements.
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Vox revisits the Idaho National Laboratory's Aurora Generator Test, where 30 lines of code destroyed a diesel generator, and argues that human-directed AI hacking of industrial equipment is the risk a board can actually inventory.
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NuCube's Advanced Research and Test Reactor takes out the mechanical coolant pumps, so its safety case now rests on data that NuCube and Canadian Nuclear Laboratories are still gathering on how sealed pipes behave above 900 degrees.
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The Strategic Breakthrough award pays for ground demonstrations of the R1-S design and a Mark-1 test campaign that starts in 2027, while Executive Order 14369 asks for nuclear reactors in space as early as 2028.
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The 15.2 terawatt-hour total is the line that travels, but the usable part is HydroGenerate, downloadable and pointed at one dam, sizing a turbine to the water an operator is already obliged to pass.
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The pump-free microreactor is marketed for industrial heat up to about 1,100C. The data-generation work now underway at Canadian Nuclear Laboratories covers performance above 900C, which is the part a regulator can check.
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Milestone payments and vendor-owned prototypes push execution risk onto the developer, and the arithmetic says private capital pays for most of the reactors.
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Waymo says its custom ASIC delivers more than 1,000 TOPS of sensor pre-processing before the driving stack sees a frame. The cheaper-to-build claim underneath it still carries no number.
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Atalanta is selling Argo on the strength of the satellite network Russia crippled in 2022. In the reporting, the math is attested by the vendor and its customer, and by nobody else.
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Idaho National Laboratory's review is funded by unnamed electric and autonomous vehicle companies, per TechCrunch's sources. Seven firms reported to be considering Hesai and RoboSense parts were unaware of it.
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ORNL and Idaho National Laboratory are aiming wire-arc printing at the one reactor input that design work cannot route around. The hard part is not the printing.
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Standard Nuclear will fabricate fuel for the Kaleidos microreactor through the early 2030s. The interesting part is what the deal implies about where microreactor programs actually stall.
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The Kaleidos microreactor left El Segundo for Idaho National Laboratory on August 12, bound for a five-phase test campaign that ends with 150 hours of unattended full-power operation.
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ANEEL passed burnups above 60 GWd/MTU at Idaho National Laboratory. Hiring Kinectrics to review the design, safety case and regulatory readiness is a move aimed at utilities.
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HiddenLayer says it will contribute to Prometheus, the Idaho-led federal effort to put AI into reactor work. The Phase II selection belongs to the consortium, and still depends on appropriations.
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