El Segundo-based nuclear microreactor developer Radiant Industries Inc. has snagged a U.S. Army contract worth up to $750 million to deploy about 15 of its microreactors at military installations and for other critical national security missions.
The contract award, announced last week, is the third major one for Radiant Industries in the last year. In April, the U.S. Air Force chose the company to build and operate one of its microreactors at Buckley Air Force Base in Aurora, Colorado. And last summer, the company signed an agreement with digital infrastructure and data center developer Equinix Inc. of Redwood City to develop and provide 20 of its microreactors for an undisclosed dollar amount.
Last week’s contract calls for Radiant to develop and deploy its microreactors through the Army’s Janus program, which aims to strengthen the energy resilience of military installations and mission-related infrastructure. The Army is working in conjunction with the Defense Innovation Unit on the program.
“This award shows confidence in Radiant’s product and ability to manufacture, deploy and safely operate nuclear microreactors for the American military,” Tori Shivanandan, Radiant’s president and chief operating officer, said in a statement. “This program will build a stronger and more resilient America while accelerating our operational excellence.”
Mass-produced portable microreactors
Radiant Industries’ nuclear microreactor, called Kaleidos, can generate 1 megawatt of electricity, enough to power at least 500 single-family homes. It is portable – about the size of a bus – allowing it to be transported on trucks, ships or large cargo aircraft to be deployed on a fixed-term basis at customer sites. It arrives fully assembled at the customer site. For greater power needs, several microreactors can be strung together.
“It’s essentially energy in a box,” Doug Bernauer, Radiant’s chief executive, said in comments to the Business Journal earlier this month.
Each microreactor is designed to provide up to five years of power before refueling and can last up to 20 years. Radiant plans to manage refueling for each microreactor at its own facilities, which will also serve as storage for spent nuclear fuel.
Unlike the long rods containing uranium fuel for traditional grid-sized nuclear power plants, Radiant’s microreactor uses tiny uranium pellets the size of poppy seeds as fuel.
Developing manufacturing capability
Radiant is one of three local companies participating in the Department of Energy’s reactor pilot program – the other two are Torrance-based Antares Nuclear Inc. and El Segundo-based Valar Atomics Inc.
Unlike those two companies, Radiant’s Kaleidos microreactor has yet to achieve criticality under the DOE program. Criticality is the point at which a self-sustaining nuclear reaction is achieved.
The company is currently testing its microreactor at the Idaho National Laboratory in Idaho Falls, aiming to reach a series of criticality and power test milestones within the next two years. It is also developing a 300,000-square-foot manufacturing, fueling and nuclear storage plant in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
It’s all part of Radiant’s strategy to build up a vertically integrated microreactor industry, controlling the entire supply chain as well as refueling and servicing the reactors.
The ultimate aim, Radiant said, is to deploy at scale a fleet of factory-built transportable reactors capable of delivering reliable independent power for its military and commercial customers.
The firm has raised more than $575 million to date, including a series D raise of more than $300 million last December. For that raise, the company was valued at more than $1.8 billion.
