USA Started Fabrication of Pele Microreactor Core

Last week, BWX Technologies announced the start of fabrication of the reactor core for the prototype mobile Pele microreactor. The work is being carried out at the company’s Innovation Campus in Lynchburg, Virginia. This will be the first microreactor to be built and put into operation in the United States.

Project Pele was launched in 2019 at the initiative of the U.S. Department of Defense’s Strategic Capabilities Office with the objective of designing, building, and demonstrating a prototype mobile nuclear reactor within five years. The initiative is led by the Department of Defense(DOE), US Department of Energy (DOE), Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), US Army Corps of Engineers, as well as several industry partners.

BWXT Advanced Technologies and X-energy LLC were subsequently selected to develop a final design for a high-temperature 1.5 MWe gas microreactor using high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) tristructural isotropic (TRISO) fuel. BWXT was contracted in June 2022 to build a prototype microreactor. The contractor team also includes critical roles played by Northrop Grumman, Rolls Royce Liberty Works, and Torch Technologies. The fuel for the reactor will be produced at BWXT’s facilities using material from the DOE’s highly-enriched uranium inventory.

The mobile reactor facility will be mounted within four 20-foot shipping containers, and tested at Idaho National Laboratory’s (INL’s) Critical Infrastructure Test Range Complex. The technology is expected to begin producing electricity in 2028.

It was noted that fabrication of the TRISO nuclear fuel for the reactor was completed and it will be shipped to INL in the months ahead. Northrop Grumman is providing the control module for the reactor, while Rolls-Royce is developing the power conversion module at its Liberty Works facility in Indianapolis.