Project Pele is breaking ground in Idaho. What’s involved?
The Department of Defense announced September 24 that it has broken ground on the site at Idaho National Laboratory’s Critical Infrastructure Test Range Complex (CITRC) where Project Pele, a transportable 1–5 MWe microreactor, will be tested. The DOD’s Strategic Capabilities Office (SCO) is in charge, on a mission to prove that a mobile microreactor can help meet the DOD’s increasing demand for resilient carbon-free energy for mission-critical operations in remote and austere environments.
One of Project Pele’s key goals is testing transportability, but this reactor, designed under contract by BWXT Advanced Technologies, will also test TRISO-fueled, high-temperature gas-cooled reactor technology that could support future commercial advanced reactor deployments. And while “groundbreaking” may seem like a misnomer for a transportable reactor, that work underway now at INL will prepare the infrastructure—including a five-foot-thick concrete pad—needed to receive the fully assembled and fueled reactor when it arrives by truck for testing.
From design to manufacturing: BWXT Advanced Technologies is manufacturing Project Pele at its facilities in Lynchburg, Va., under contract with DOD-SCO. According to the DOD, assembly of the final reactor is set to begin in Virginia in February 2025. Then the fully assembled reactor will be transported in four 20-foot shipping containers for testing at INL.
“We are thrilled to move beyond the era of PowerPoint advanced reactors,” said Jeff Waksman, Project Pele program manager within DOD-SCO. “Our tight partnership with INL and the Department of Energy Idaho Operations Office is leading the way forward not just for manufacturing advanced reactors, but also for regulating them in an efficient and safe manner.”
“The DOD has a long record of driving American innovation on strategic and critical technology,” said Jay Dryer, SCO director. “Project Pele is a key initiative for improving DOD energy resilience and will also play a crucial role in advancing nuclear power technology for civilian applications.”
Operation now set for 2026: The current schedule includes transport of a fully assembled reactor to INL in 2026, according to the DOD, where “it would become the first ever Generation IV nuclear reactor to generate electricity in the United States.”
About one year ago, Waksman was targeting operation in late 2025. In an August 2023 ANS webinar, he said that reactor assembly would follow DOE design approval, and “if all goes according to schedule, by early 2025 we will have shipped the reactor to Idaho National Laboratory. At Idaho, it will then be fueled [and] shipped out to the desert to a location that we have selected to do the initial testing. The reactor will then go through a final operational readiness review, and if all—again—goes according to schedule, we will be able to turn the reactor on before the end of calendar year 2025.”
For its part, the DOE, which issued its own press release yesterday on the groundbreaking, plans would have the reactor module transported “for placement at the complex during the 2026 timeframe to conduct safety reviews and initial planning and testing.”
On the ground: During 2025, while the reactor is being assembled, the Project Pele team will “construct a concrete shield structure at the test site” to prepare for the reactor’s arrival in 2026.
As described in the most recent Supplemental Information Report for Project Pele, issued in September 2023, that work may impact about 1.6 acres and involve the laying of a 100×100×5-foot concrete pad.
Prior to testing, the microreactor will be fueled at INL’s Transient Reactor Test Facility and then transported to the CITRC and placed on that pad, according to the DOD-SCO report, with “temporary and permanent shielding possibly consisting of concrete T-walls, steel-reinforced concrete roof panels, concrete wall blocks, steel bladders for water shielding, and HESCO [defensive barrier] bags.” Three fencing barriers would demarcate the operational areas, a controlled area, and a “no loitering area.” (With the planned test site located about seven miles from the nearest INL site boundary, that “no loitering area” is intended for INL personnel.)
Testing program: After the reactor is trucked to the test site and positioned on and within the concrete shield structure, piping and electrical wiring will tie the reactor to an INL microgrid. Once the reactor's final safety review is completed, the Pele project team will then proceed with its initial test and evaluation plan. The DOE expects the reactor to operate for a minimum of three years.
“For 75 years INL has been the home of nuclear innovation, and we are pleased to partner with the Department of Defense on this trailblazing demonstration,” said John Wagner, INL director. “We anticipate Pele will be among the first of a new generation of advanced experimental reactors hosted here before the end of the decade.”
A group project: According to the DOE, Project Pele is a “whole-of-government effort,” with contributions from the Department of Energy, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, NASA, and the National Nuclear Security Administration.
While Project Pele is being regulated with safety oversight from the DOE’s Idaho Operations Office, that work is being designed to be “NRC certifiable,” Waksman said in 2023, adding that “the NRC does sit in on all of our design reviews. They have the opportunity to express any input that they may have.”
In addition to lead contractor BWXT Advanced Technologies, Northrop Grumman, Rolls-Royce Liberty Works, and Torch Technologies are contributing to the Project Pele test, according to the DOD.
