Austin-based Aalo Atomics is among the startups looking to make nuclear microreactors a reality in the U.S. as electricity demand rises driven in part by data centers. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) in December said it identified a tentative site at Idaho National Laboratory (INL) for Aalo’s experimental microreactor facility. Aalo said it aims to deploy its commercial microreactor design by the end of the decade. “First, we do some bench-scale tests. The learning from there is going to go into a full scale non-nuclear prototype called Aalo-0, which we’re building right now, and we will test it by the third quarter of this year,” Aalo Atomics CTO Yasir Arafat told Hart Energy. “Learning from that, we’ll go to our first nuclear experimental reactor. That’s the Aalo-X that we’re planning to build at the Idaho National Laboratory. It will be a real reactor with fuel and everything, but it’s going to be an experimental one.” Aalo has already completed the conceptual design for its 10-megawatt (MW) Aalo-1 sodium-cooled microreactor. The company plans to submit a construction and licensing application for its project next year.

Full report : Aalo Atomics intends to build an experimental microreactor facility at the Idaho National Laboratory.