The Fourth of July this summer marks not only the 250th anniversary of the United States, but also the deadline for 10 nuclear companies vying to develop small and more advanced reactors to reach what the industry calls “criticality.”
Update:
Earlier this month, Antares Nuclear’s Mark-0 and Valar Atomics’ Ward 250 reactors achieved criticality under DOE’s Reactor Pilot Program. Deployable Energy’s demonstration reactor, Unity, successfully completed a zero-power fueled criticality demonstration at Idaho National Laboratory. Unity, which achieved criticality late yesterday, is the third DOE-authorized advanced reactor to go critical by the July 4th deadline.