Four nuclear reactors reach milestone in the United States

But reaching the criticality level does not mean that a reactor is ready to supply electricity to the grid (or at all, for that matter). Let’s take a look at what the success of this program could mean for nuclear power in the United States, and where these companies could go from here.

The reactor pilot program essentially opened a special door for reactor prototypes to accelerate development. In August, the U.S. Department of Energy selected 11 reactor projects for the program and offered them land and support from the National Laboratory System. They are all microreactors; the large light water reactors that dominate the grid today are dozens, if not hundreds of times their size.

Antares Nuclear was the first to reach criticality, achieving this milestone in June in its Mark-0 test reactor. Reactors from Valar Atomics, Deployable Energy and Aalo Atomics followed. (Aalo struck just in the early hours of July 4 – an inspiring example of barely meeting a deadline.)

The speed with which these companies are reaching this milestone is impressive, especially in an industry known for massive projects that often exceed announced deadlines and budgets. (Valar, Antares, and Aalo were all founded in 2023, and Deployable started in 2025.) But reaching criticality and operating a reactor capable of producing electricity are two entirely different things.

All of these reactors have reached what is called zero power criticality. Basically, it’s testing whether you can start a nuclear chain reaction, without any significant power coming from the reactor. “A zero-power test can be done without making any real technical advances in fuel or design,” Kathryn Huff, former assistant secretary for nuclear energy and chair of the Department of Nuclear Engineering and Engineering Physics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said in an episode of the Catalyst podcast earlier this year.

Now, with the completion of this program, companies will have to continue their electricity production work, which could involve big technical challenges. In some cases, they will need to add significant equipment, such as cooling systems to transfer heat out of the reactor core.

Companies are planning tight deadlines for the future. Aalo says it has already started work on the second reactor and plans to produce 10 megawatts of electricity to power an on-site data center in 2027. Deployable Energy says it plans to deploy commercial reactors by 2028.

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