Aalo Rolls Out 50 MW SMR Non-nuclear Prototype

• Aalo Completes Non-Nuclear Prototype of 50 MW SMR
• DOD Selects Eight Firms to Supply Advanced SMRs for Military Bases
• DOE to Release HALEU to Five Advanced Reactor Developers
• Czech Republic And South Korea to Sign Dukovany New-Build Contract
• UK Prime Minister ‘Ready to Sign Off’ on Sizewell C Nuclear Project
• Shanghai Fund to Invest $1.4 Billion in State-Backed Nuclear Fusion Company
• Fusion Energy Test Center Slated for Eastern Washington

Aalo Completes Non-Nuclear Prototype of 50 MW SMR

• New Breed of Reactor Is Purpose-Built for AI and Data Centers

(NucNet) contributed to this report: Aalo Atomics unveils the first non-nuclear prototype of its Aalo-1 reactor as well as its state of the art 40,000 square foot manufacturing facility in Austin, TX. These developments represent a critical step toward achieving the company’s goal of providing data centers with power from nuclear energy.

The Aalo-1 reactor is the core component of the company’s Aalo Pod XMR, a 50 MWe power plant purpose-built for data centers. Each Aalo Pod contains five 10 MWe Aalo-1 reactors, is fully modular (both the reactor and the plant) and can scale seamlessly to gigawatt scale. The company goal is compete with natural gas by producing electricity at $0.03/kWh.

According to the company, its liquid sodium metal design is able to extract heat from the reactor core much faster than water or gas. This means Aalo reactors can produce up to 10x more energy than other nuclear technologies of a similar physical size. Additionally, Aalo-1 reactors are sodium-cooled and use proven-safe, readily available low enriched uranium fuel (LEU+).

With a small physical footprint and no need for external water sources, the Aalo Pod is easy to co-locate onsite with the data center. Aalo’s ability to mass manufacture and ship the entire Aalo Pod via standard shipping methods significantly shortens installation time. By co-locating the power plant at the data center, a getting a grid connection, which can take two or more years, is no longer a barrier to success. Similarly, unlike a gas powered data center, no pipeline connections, with their own wait times, are needed to go to work on day one.

According to Aalo’s Regulatory Engagement Plan submitted to the NRC (ML24193A003) in July 2024 the nuclear and environmental safety standards for each unit of the power plant will be based on Aalo Atomics’ flagship product, a 100-MWe energy generating unit consisting of 10 independent Aalo-1 reactors, each capable of producing 10 MWe, that are operated with and connected to shared operational systems (e.g., control room) and electricity generating systems (e.g., turbine generator).

“We believe that to address today’s massive data center market demand, another category of nuclear reactor is needed, one that blends the benefit of the factory manufacturing of microreactors, the power levels of SMRs, and the economic targets of a large reactor,” said Matt Loszak, CEO, Aalo Atomics. “We call this category XMR, with the “X” representing extra flexibility and modularity.

“We are aiming to do for nuclear reactors what Henry Ford did for cars,” continued Loszak. “Currently, many utilities are shying away from building large nuclear plants, because of the uncertainty in cost and schedule. By making reactors in factories, we make the process fast, repeatable, and predictable, decreasing costs without sacrificing quality or safety.”

Aalo says it has the objective to break ground on its prototype nuclear reactor next year. It has selected a site in Texas for non-nuclear testing. Recently, it was selected as one of four partners to develop up to 1 GW of nuclear energy generation capacity at the Texas A&M Rellis Campus.

In December 2024 the Department of Energy signed an MOU with Aalo which identified a location at Idaho National Laboratory as a potential site for Aalo to build a new reactor facility. The Aalo SMR is based on the INL ‘Marvel” R&D project. Also, the firm hired the project director from the INL to join its commercialization effort.

Aalo has also signed a non-binding MOU with Idaho Falls Power that all calls for  deployment of seven factory-built Aalo-1 reactors, totaling 75 MW of power generation.

Last August the firm raised $27 million in Series A funding. Aalo has secured over $36M in funding to-date from multiple investors including 50Y, Valor Equity Partners, Harpoon Ventures, Crosscut, SNR, Alumni Ventures, Preston Werner, Earth Venture, Garage Capital, Wayfinder, Jeff Dean, and Nucleation Capital.

& & &

DOD Selects Eight Firms to Supply Advanced SMRs for Military Bases

To ensure U.S. energy dominance, the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU), with the Department of the Army and the Department of the Air Force, launched the Advanced Nuclear Power for Installations (ANPI) program.

First announced in summer 2024, the program will allow for the design and build of fixed on-site micro reactor nuclear power systems on select military installations to support global operations across land, air, sea, space, and cyberspace. The Department of Defense team selected eight companies to be eligible to demonstrate the ability to deliver compliant, safe, secure, and reliable nuclear power.

The companies are now eligible to receive contract awards to provide commercially available dual use micro reactor technology at various DOD installations. Selected companies for the ANPI program include:

• Antares Nuclear, Inc
• BWXT Advanced Technologies LLC
• General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems
• Kairos Power, LLC
• Oklo Inc.
• Radiant Industries Incorporated
• Westinghouse Government Services
• X-Energy, LLC

All of the advanced reactor designs selected for the DOD program share several common features. They are small, transportable, don’t require water for cooling, and have long fuel cycles on average 5-10 years.

Where the designs differ is in power ratings. Four of the designs fit the limits of micro reactors, e.g., less than 20 MWe. However, the other four vary For instance, X-Energy’s HTGR is rated at 80 MWe and Oklo just announced a 75 MWe offering.

In choosing a variety of power ratings, DOD is signaling that different military installations will have a variety of demand profiles for power. DOD appears to be establishing a catalog of offerings for base commanders to select for their operations. Ordering one ‘off-the-shelf- won’t be as easy as picking up a hot sandwich at a convenience store, but avoiding a ‘one-size-fits-all’ solution is a smart move.

The ANPI project directly supports Executive Order (E.O.) 14156 – Declaring a National Energy Emergency and E.O. 14154 – Unleashing American Energy which recognizes that external energy dependencies create the potential for disruption and risk to mission from constrained grid energy systems, natural disasters, or physical and cyber attacks to infrastructure.

By leveraging DIU’s commercial solutions opening (CSO) process that results in the award of Other Transaction Agreements (OTA) to acquire commercial technology solutions, a unique process that emphasizes speed, flexibility, and execution, this program aligns with the goals of E.O. 14269 – Modernizing Defense Acquisitions and Spurring Innovation in the Industrial Base focused on streamlining acquisitions to accelerate defense procurement, ensuring the Armed Forces have decisive advantages in the future.

To address these energy challenges and ensure mission continuity, ANPI objectives include:

• Provide mission readiness through energy resilience;
• Deploy nuclear power and demonstrate its capability to provide safe, secure, reliable, and compliant electricity in support of installation readiness goals for mission critical  assets and empower the warfighter;
• Field a decentralized scalable micro reactor system capable of producing enough electrical power to meet 100 percent of all critical loads;
• Utilize the civil regulatory pathways of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to stimulate commercial nuclear micro reactor technology development and the associated supply chains in the U.S.

The ANPI program is a collaboration between DIU, Department of the Army, and Department of the Air Force – working to design, license, build, and operate one or more micro reactor nuclear power plants on military installations.

“Advanced nuclear power represents a transformative opportunity to bolster Army installation resilience and strengthen national security in an increasingly uncertain world, ” said Daniel Klippstein, Senior Official Performing the Duties of Assistant Secretary of the Army, Installations, Energy and Environment.

“Advanced micro reactor designs are smaller, safer, and more efficient than their predecessors. The Army’s partnership with, and investment in, the domestic nuclear industry will reduce reliance on foreign energy supplies and ensure uninterrupted power for the Army’s defense mission.”

In addition to DIU, Army, Air Force, ANPI receives support from the Department of Energy; the NRC; Idaho National Laboratory with Oak Ridge National Laboratory; Los Alamos National Laboratory; Argonne National Laboratory; Pacific Northwest National Laboratory; Sandia National Laboratory; and DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy.

DOD officials did not indicate in their press statements the levels of funding to be provided, whether the funding would be cost-shared with vendors, which reactors would be chosen for specific bases in the US or abroad, although size matters, and key milestones for building and launching operations of any of the SMRs.

Kairos Leads the Pack in Terms of Licensing Progress

All of the reactor designs selected for the DOD program are advanced reactors. Except for Kairos, none of the selected firms have licensed their SMR or micro reactors with the NRC. Oklo says it expects to submit its reactor design for safety review next October. The others are involved in pre-application reviews. In terms of timelines for deploying commercial versions of these reactors for use by DOD, the early 2030s look like feasible dates.

In November 2024 Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) voted to issue construction permits to Kairos Power for the Hermes 2 Demonstration Plant to be built at the Heritage Center Industrial Park in Oak Ridge, TN. The permits authorize Kairos to build a facility with two 35 MWt thermal test reactors that would use molten salt to cool the reactor cores.

The Hermes 2 facility would include the two reactors and a shared power generation system. The facility is intended to provide operational data to support the development of a larger version for commercial electricity production. The NRC would need to review and approve a future application from Kairos before operating licenses for the Hermes 2 facility could be issued.

Status of Project Pele

Named after the Hawaiian goddess of volcanoes, “Project Pele” is the Pentagon’s partnership with the US Department of Energy (DOE) to develop and demonstrate a prototype US military transportable power reactor. The microreactor (1 to 5 MW electric) is expected to be used for rapid deployment by land, air and sea to support US military operations and to power remote military bases.

In September 2024 The Department of Defense (DoD) broke ground at Idaho National Laboratory (INL) on the Project Pele transportable nuclear reactor. The reactor, under a Strategic Capabilities Office (SCO) initiative, is being manufactured by BWXT Advanced Technologies, LLC, Lynchburg, Virginia. The current schedule includes transport of the fully-assembled reactor to INL in 2026.

The prototype reactor facility is designed to be transported within four 20-foot shipping containers, and tested at INL. The Project Pele team will construct a concrete shield structure at the test site next year in order to be ready for reactor placement in 2026. Upon arriving at INL, the reactor will be transported by truck to the test site and positioned within the concrete shield structure. Piping and electrical wiring will tie the reactor to INL’s specialized electric microgrid. The graphite-moderated high temperature gas cooled reactor (HTGR) will then be loaded with TRISO fuel (TRIstructural-ISOtropic particles) enriched to 19% U235.

Once the reactor’s final safety review is completed, the Pele project team will then proceed with the initial Test and Evaluation Plan. The reactor is expected to operate for a minimum of three years at the lab and will help demonstrate the use of clean, 24X7/365 reliable, and transportable nuclear power to help meet the increasing energy demands at military bases across the country. By 2029 DOD expects to know everything it needs to place orders for multiple units of the microreactor. This is two years ahead of the likely timeline for the eight newly selected advanced reactors. However, the lessons learned from testing the Project Pele device will inform the development of these eight projects that will follow in its footsteps.

BWXT will also leverage its experience from Project Pele to advance its civil-focused BANR microreactor, which is being supported from DOE’s Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program. The work will help stand-up a domestic supply chain for high-temperature gas reactor components and services, and the manufacture of TRISO fuel in production quantities.

& & &

DOE to Release First Production Round of HALEU to Five Advanced Reactor Developers

The Department of Energy (DOE) said it will provide high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) to five U.S. nuclear developers to meet their near-term fuel needs. This first round of HALEU production brings these firms one step closer to commercialization.

Many advanced reactors will need HALEU to achieve smaller designs, longer operating cycles, and increased efficiencies over current technologies, but HALEU is not currently available from domestic suppliers.

To help fill this gap, DOE created the HALEU allocation process for nuclear developers to request HALEU material from DOE sources, including material downblended from sources at the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). DOE received HALEU requests from 15 companies. For this first round, DOE identified five of those companies with three of them requiring fuel delivery in 2025.

The five companies that received conditional commitments are:
• TRISO-X, LLC.
• Kairos Power, LLC.
• Radiant Industries, Inc.
• Westinghouse Electric Company, LLC
• TerraPower, LLC.

The allocated HALEU supports firms cost-shared funded by DOE under the  Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program (ARDP). It also supports firms planning to test their designs at the INL’s DOME test bed.

As a next step, DOE will initiate the contracting process to allocate the material to the five companies, some of which could receive their HALEU as early as this fall. The allocation process is ongoing, and DOE plans to continue HALEU allocations to additional companies in the future.

The first round of conditional commitments of HALEU were made through the HALEU Availability Program, which was established in 2020 to secure a domestic supply of HALEU for civilian domestic research, development, demonstration, and commercial use.

How Much HALEU is Needed in the Short-and-Long-Term?

DOE did not indicate in its press statement how much HALEU was allocated to each firm nor did it publish a schedule of releases of additional production of HALEU for these or other firms. The fuel is in the form of uranium hexafluoride (F6), enriched to 5-19% U235, which must be handed off to fuel fabrication plants to make uranium oxide or uranium metal fuels for various reactor designs.

On October 12, 2024 The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) awarded contracts to six companies to spur the buildout of a U.S. supply chain for fuels for advanced nuclear reactors. Many advanced reactors will require high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) to achieve smaller designs, longer operating cycles, and increased efficiencies over current technologies.

These contracts will allow selected companies to bid on work for deconversion services, a critical component of the HALEU supply chain. Deconversion transforms the gaseous form of enriched uranium (uranium hexafluoride aka UF6) into either uranium oxide or uranium metal forms for fabrication into solid fuel elements intended for specific reactors.

A week later on October 19, 2024 DOE awarded $2.7 billion to four firms for HALEU production contracts. Selected companies can compete for work to provide enrichment services to produce fuel for advanced reactors. All contracts will last for up to 10 years and each firm winning a contract under the program will receive a minimum of $2 million. A total of $2.7 billion is available for these services, subject to congressional appropriations.

According to the HALEU Availability Program DOE estimates that more than 40 metric tons of HALEU will be needed by 2030, with additional as yet unspecified amounts, which will required each year thereafter to deploy a new fleet of advanced reactors in a timeframe that supports the Administration’s 2050 net-zero emissions target.

& & &

Czech Republic And South Korea To Sign Dukovany New-Build Contract

(NucNet)  The Czech Republic’s  finance minister Zbynek Stanjura said the majority state-owned power company CEZ will sign a contract with South Korea’s Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power (KHNP) this quarter on building two new 1,400 PWR type units at the Dukovany nuclear power station. The first unit is scheduled to be completed by 2036.

The contract to build two South Korean APR1400 plants, expected to be worth at least $17.5 billion or $6,250/kw, was subject to some uncertainty due to appeals by losing bidders EDF of France and US-based Westinghouse, along with political upheaval in South Korea, Pressure also was a factor from Czech firms over the level of localization to build the reactor.

Localization refers to how much of the procurement of components, materials, and labor will be allocated to Czech companies to build the reactors. Up to 5,000 jobs will be created onsite over the six-to-eight year period needed to build the reactors. Many thousands more will be created by firms in the local supply chain providing steel, concrete, components, and services.

“I cannot tell you but I already know the date, so it is not fiction… it will certainly be in this quarter,” Stanjura told reporters. Stanjura’s comments follow reports in South Korea that negotiations were close to being complete.

South Korea’s industry minister Ahn Duk-geun said earlier his week that “we have completed documentations for the project, and local procedures, such as a legal review and board meetings, are currently under way. “We hope to finalize the agreement in late April or early May at the latest.”

The deal once signed would mark South Korea’s first overseas nuclear power station project since 2009, when KHNP won a contract to build four APR1400 plants at Barakah in the United Arab Emirates.

In July, KHNP was chosen as preferred bidder in a public tender to build two nuclear plants at Dukovany with the first unit scheduled to be online by 2036.

KHNP settled an intellectual property dispute with Westinghouse in January, removing a major hurdle to the signing of the Czech project. Westinghouse had previously claimed KHNP had infringed on its intellectual property. Details of the settlement were not announced, but press statements by both firms indicate they will now seek to collaborate on future new nuclear projects.

& & & 

UK Prime Minister ‘Ready To Sign Off’ On Sizewell C Nuclear Project

(NucNet contributed to this report)  UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is expected to sign off on plans to build two new EDF 1,650 MW nuclear power plants at Sizewell C. He will also also back a new generation of small modular reactors (SMRs) by moving ahead with funding decisions for one or more designs submitted to the government under a competition program.

The UK government has struggled with indecision in its commitment to the Sizewell C project adding chunks of funding while deferring a final decision to fund and build the plants. Bureaucratic dithering seems to be a core competency of the UK’s energy policy makers.

Vendors participating in the SMR competition have been critical of a slow decision process. Rolls-Royce said that failure to move forward would cede competitive advantage on SMRs to other nations. X-Energy threatened to pull out of the UK market.

Apparently, the decision to move forward with Sizewell C has been made. According to news media reports in the UK, Starmer is set to formally approve the $25 billion investment in two new EPR units supplied by French state company EDF ahead of a planned government spending review in June.

The reports came after it was revealed on the UK government’s subsidies website that an additional £2.7 billion had been committed by the government to the Sizewell C project last month.

The government has said that it will make a final investment decision (FID) on whether to proceed with Sizewell C after the completion of a strategic spending review by the government. The spending review, expected to be completed in late June, is to determine government expenditure for the fiscal years 2025-27.

The decision to fund the new reactors, large and small, comes during a time of fiscal retrenchment by the government due to slow economic growth in the UK. Some investors feared the government would target Sizewell C and the SMR competition for deep budget cuts because of their huge, multi-year spending commitments. So far these fears have not been realized.

The UK is facing significant energy security challenges. The current fleet of nuclear reactors are near the end of their service lives. Decarbonization priorities mean less reliance on North Sea oil and gas supplies which also have a finite future. A decision to cancel Sizewell C and the SMR program would create consequences that would be detrimental to the UK’s long-term energy security.

Lessons Learned from Hinkley Point C Will Help Control Sizewell C Costs

EDF has repeatedly said that because Sizewell C will be an exact copy of the two-unit Hinkley Point C nuclear power station being built in southwest England, it expects the construction cost of Sizewell C to be around 20% less than that of Hinkley Point C.

This is due to synergies in the construction process and supply chain, as well as the repeated and more effective use of certain construction techniques that will save time and money during the construction of Sizewell C, according to EDF.

A spokesperson for EDF Energy, the UK-based subsidiary of EDF, said on April 9th the company is “seeing significant construction and manufacturing cost savings due to replication at Hinkley Point C”, where two EPR units are under construction. The “lessons learned from replication and modularization of construction at Hinkley Point C are material”, the spokesperson said.

“Performance improvements of 20-30% have been achieved between Unit 1 and Unit 2 and these will be built on and further efficiencies identified at Sizewell C through Unit 3 and Unit 4.”

“In addition, operating a larger nuclear fleet brings its own efficiency benefits,” the spokesperson said.

EDF would be a minority shareholder in Sizewell C, with a final stake of up to 20%. In addition to the UK state funding, EDF had, as of December 2023, contributed £660 million to the Sizewell C project, meaning the project has so far had just under £7.1 billion in total funding from French and UK state entities.

In 2022, the UK government used taxpayer money to remove China’s CGN’s 20% stake from the ownership of Sizewell C, citing national security concerns.

& & &

Shanghai Fund To Invest $1.4 Billion In State-Backed Nuclear Fusion Company

(NucNet contributed to this report) A $1.4 billoin fund created by the Shanghai government will invest in one of the nation’s ambitious “moonshot” projects, a state-backed firm attempting to harness nuclear fusion technology. The Shanghai Future Industry Fund plans to make an investment in China Fusion Corp, according to a statement. It is the first investment since the fund was created last year.

Shanghai officials announced the fund last September, with financing provided by the city’s department of municipal finance and the goal of promoting innovative and disruptive technologies. It plans early investment in promising, small companies. The Bloomberg wire service also reported the investment in fusion energy on it on 03/31/25.

According to a report on 01/09/25 by the ANS Nuclear Wire, The consortium China Fusion Energy Inc. is being led by the China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC). The consortium was established to pool national resources and spur the development of fusion technology in China, including through initial R&D activities in the areas of high-temperature superconducting magnets, large-capacity energy storage, and tritium production. There are 25 primarily government-owned companies and research institutes involved that have expertise in energy, construction, and other relevant fields.

According to the ANS report, a few of the larger companies are State Grid Corp., China Three Gorges Corp., China Baowu Steel Group Corp., and China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp. One private company and four universities are also part of the project. Much of the technological know-how for the project will be derived from research conducted at the CNNC-affiliated Southwestern Institute of Physics and the Chinese Academy of Sciences–affiliated Institute of Plasma Physics.

CNBC March 2024
How China Could Beat The U.S. To Nuclear Fusion, As AI Power Needs Surge

The 15-year fund for the consortium, which can be extended by three more years, is fully financed by the Shanghai government to create an environment conducive to long-term investment in innovation.

“Future industries are mainly high-tech industries that require long-term financial investment and stable policy support,” Peng Lei, founder and chief executive of Shanghai-based brain-computer interface company NeuroXess, told a Chinese technology wire service.

Peng Lei also known as Lucy Peng, is a Chinese billionaire businesswoman. She is one of the founders of the e-commerce company Alibaba Group. As of March 2017, Peng was one of 21 self-made women billionaires in China.

Earlier this year China Fusion Corp attracted about $230 million in investment from China National Nuclear Corp and Zhejiang Zheneng Electric Power Company for tokamak devices, which use magnetic fields to confine and control superheated plasma to produce fusion power without emissions or significant radioactive waste.

Earlier this month China reached a milestone in its pursuit of controlled nuclear fusion, with its Huanliu-3 tokamak-type magnetic fusion experiment surpassing 100 million degrees Celsius for both atomic nuclei and electrons for the first time.

& & &

Fusion Energy Test Center Slated for Eastern Washington

(GeekWire) Seattle startup Avalanche Energy plans to open a first-of-its-kind facility for commercial-scale testing of radioactive fusion technologies in Tukwila, WA, which is about a 10 minute drive from Seattle-Tacoma Airport.

The Pacific Northwest region has established itself as a fusion hub with companies that include Avalanche, Zap Energy, Helion Energy, Kyoto Fusioneering, Altrusion and ExoFusion in Washington state, and General Fusion in British Columbia.

The center, called FusionWERX, is a public-private partnership offering shared resources to universities, companies, and government labs in an effort to support fusion power producers and the sector’s supply chain.

FusionWERX said in a press statement that it  will operate under a broad-scope radioactive materials license and will have tritium handling capacities available in the private sector when fully licensed and operational. This licensing framework positions FusionWERX as a enabler for fusion research and development, supply chain advancement, and workforce training within a flexible intellectual property environment.

The FusionWERX facility will incorporate several key systems designed to support a wide range of fusion concepts and applications:

• High flux fusion neutron sources based on Avalanche’s proprietary Orbitron platform, providing tunable neutron energy environments from high energy 14.1 megaelectron volts (MeV) to thermal neutrons for materials testing and fusion system validation.
• Blanket and shielding test beds that will enable the demonstration of purpose-fit technologies applicable to multiple plasma and fusion device architectures.
• Hot cells designed for remote handling, processing, and analysis of activated materials.
• Integrated tritium management systems capable of extracting, purifying, and recycling tritium for continuous experimental operation.

The firm says it aims to be one of the most advanced private-sector operations for handling tritium, a radioactive hydrogen isotope. The startup is looking for customers and partners whose work will compliment Avalanche’s research. The cost for using the facility could be an hourly fee.

Robin Langtry, co-founder and CEO of Avalanche, told GeekWire he compares the idea to the shared Lockheed Martin high-speed wind tunnel that he had access to when testing aerodynamic designs as a Blue Origin employee.

“There’s a really interesting model here,” Langtry said, that can spread costs among participants.

With the launch of the FusionWERX facility, Avalanche also announced that it agreed to a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Fusion Fuel Cycles (FFC), a provider of fusion fuel cycle technologies.

The collaboration will include research, development, demonstration, and commercialization of technologies critical to the commercial fusion industry including neutron sources, tritium breeding blankets, deuterium-tritium (D-T) fuel cycle systems, and integrated test facilities for materials and tritium research.

Fusion energy is often seen as the ultimate clean power source, but not all fusion approaches are created equal. The infographic below breaks down the spectrum of fusion energy solutions to provide an overview of the key technologies, their development stages, and what they mean for the future of sustainable power.

Focus on Fusion Applications

Avalanche is developing compact fusion devices that use tritium as a fuel, with a focus on space applications, driven in part by a Pentagon contract to develop nuclear-powered prototypes.

“We always thought of ourselves as a space and defense fusion approach first, and then, as we perfect the technology, we’re going to move into clean energy,” Langtry said. “You’re seeing a huge amount of interest and funding go into defense and space companies.”

Tri-Cities Site to be Developed as Fusion Test Bed

FusionWERX will take over an existing facility in the Tri-Cities town of Richland, WA, which is home to Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) and the Hanford Nuclear Reservation. The building was previously licensed for tritium operations. The facility reportedly will fusion blanket and shielding test beds, hot cells for handling radioactive materials, and systems for extracting, purifying and recycling tritium. The site could also be used to produce radioisotopes for medical and space applications.

Langtry said they’re putting together private and public funding to build out the site, and expect to start construction this summer. He did not share cost estimates. About 15 Avalanche employees will be involved in the effort.

Latest Investor Rounds

Axios reported last week that Avalanche plans to begin raising a Series B round of up to $100 million. When asked by GeekWire, the company declined to discuss any future fundraising plans.

In April 2023, Lowercarbon Capital led a $40 million Series A funding round for Avalanche Energy, a startup developing modular fusion micro-reactors.

Avalanche has raised $50 million to date from investors that include Chris Sacca’s Lowercarbon Capital, Founders Fund, Toyota Ventures, Azolla Ventures and others. It has received $8 million in government grants and contracts, and has 50 employees.

About the Avalanche Fusion Reactor

The firm is developing a 1-100kWe compact fusion machine called “The Orbitron.” Applications include lunar surface power and local micro-grids.

The reactor design is capable of fusing fuels like proton-boron-11 which Avalanche notes practically eliminates internal neutron radiation, resulting in longer life and lower shielding requirements for a lighter power pack. The reactor design avoids the expense and complexity of high-powered magnets or lasers.

The fusion core is the very high vacuum chamber that confines the fusion plasma. The co-axial chamber is surrounded by a magnetic bottle, specifically tuned to trap high-energy electrons. The central electrode pulls high energy ions into orbits. The deep vacuum keeps them confined in orbits for long periods of time.

The fuel injectors ionize fusion fuels, such as Deuterium and Tritium and accelerate the ions as a beam into the fusion core. The fuel injector systems contain the fusion fuel storage, controlled release, ionization, focus and acceleration systems required to feed a high energy beam of fusion fuel ions into the fusion core.

The heat generated from neutron bombardment will be converted to electrical energy with a thermal cycle, utilizing turbines.

# # #