Idaho National Laboratory
Assembly Line
U.S. Department of Energy Grants Tentative Site for Aalo Atomics Experimental Microreactor
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has identified a piece of land at Idaho National Laboratory (INL) as a potential site for Aalo Atomics to build a new experimental reactor facility. The new facility will be used to advance the company’s commercial Aalo-1 microreactor design that the company hopes to deploy before the end of the decade.
Aalo Atomics is developing a 10-megawatt-electric sodium-cooled microreactor inspired by DOE’s MARVEL microreactor design currently under development at INL. The Austin, Texas-based company is working to optimize the reactor for mass manufacturing and plans to use existing commercial supply chains to deliver clean, low-cost heat to power everything from data centers to industrial facilities.
The new facility will help uncover new data on its sodium-cooled microreactor technology, including operations related to advanced safety systems, fuel performance, and coolant efficiency.