Radiant says the US Department of Energy has approved the Documented Safety Analysis for its Kaleidos microreactor, moving the project towards full-power testing at Idaho National Laboratory. The company announced the milestone on 29 October.
The approval covers operation at power as well as initial criticality. It allows Radiant to proceed to DOE’s Readiness Review, which assesses whether the reactor and operating team are prepared for nuclear operations.
Radiant says fueling and a five-phase test campaign at the DOME facility will follow successful completion of that review. The planned programme targets 60 effective full-power days over several months, including at least 150 hours of continuous full-power operation without operator intervention.
These remain planned demonstrations. The announcement does not confirm that the reactor has started nuclear operations, completed the readiness review or received approval for a commercial customer deployment.
The distinction is relevant to nuclear engineering, commissioning and operations teams: a safety-analysis milestone establishes the basis for the next readiness assessment, while integrated testing must still demonstrate performance. Radiant’s later release also clarifies the sequence following its earlier October description of testing.
Source: Radiant announcement, 29 October.
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Image credit: Location file photograph: the Materials and Fuels Complex at Idaho National Laboratory, 8 September 2009. This historical aerial view does not show Kaleidos or its current testing. Idaho National Laboratory / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0. Resized. Source photograph; licence.
