First Projects Selected for Testing at the MARVEL Reactor

Five projects have been selected in the United States to conduct experiments at the MARVEL reactor, developed by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and located at Idaho National Laboratory (INL).

MARVEL is a sodium-potassium-cooled microreactor. It will generate 85 kilowatts of thermal energy and up to 20 kilowatts of electricity. It will serve as a nuclear test bed to demonstrate microreactor operations and end-use applications, providing a platform for the private sector to access to an operational microreactor in order to show innovative new use cases for the technology. The reactor will be connected to INL’s microgrid, and is expected to be operational by late 2027.

The projects selected in a competitive process as the first potential end-users for Marvel are:

Amazon Web Services Inc, which proposes coupling the MARVEL reactor with a modular data center, which could potentially provide a simple and cost-effective way for government agencies to build data centers anywhere in the world by enabling the creation of a self-sustaining, rapidly deployable system that can operate independently of traditional power infrastructure.

DCX USA and Arizona State University, with a proposal to use MARVEL to demonstrate the feasibility of a microreactor to power a data center for artificial intelligence to yield valuable data on how to provide a stable, continuous power supply capable of handling the unique demands of AI processing.

General Electric Vernova, which proposes to use MARVEL to demonstrate remote and autonomous reactor operations and establish controls standards for broader application of the technology with commercial reactors.

Radiation Detection Technologies Inc, proposing to use MARVEL to test advanced high-performance sensor technologies that could help monitor the performance of advanced reactors.

Shepherd Power, NOV and ConocoPhillips with a proposal to leverage MARVEL for a pilot-scale desalination project using nuclear-generated process heat to demonstrate the viability of advanced nuclear energy for addressing produced water challenges in oil and gas operations.

The selectees will now work with DOE and Idaho National Laboratory staff to create implementation plans and to determine the feasibility of their proposed application using MARVEL. Final agreements for proposed projects are expected to be announced in 2026.