Aaron Larson of Power reports on Idaho National Lab and its incredible work in advancing nuclear power.
- Idaho National Laboratory (INL), which is one of America’s national labs, is playing a pivotal role in advancing nuclear energy innovation.
- INL’s testing system allows companies to test out new designs and systems with limited regulatory barriers before taking the innovation to market.
- In addition to small modular reactors, INL is working to develop and microreactors–which often produce up to 1-10 megawatts of energy (although some reach 20MW) and can be deployed in rural areas.
- Our national labs are playing a critical and leading role to advance energy innovation.
“The MARVEL reactor will be constructed at INL’s Transient Reactor Test Facility. Yasir Arafat, project lead for MARVEL, showed me the site and provided an overview of the project. Arafat explained that microreactors are ‘very tiny reactors’ compared to today’s more standard gigawatt-scale commercial units. He said they typically produce single-digit megawatt output, although some can run up to 20 MW or more. Arafat noted that microreactors have three key features: they can be built in factories, transported over standard roads, and are self-regulating, that is, they’re automated to operate safely without human interaction.”
Read the full article here.
The views and opinions expressed are those of the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of C3.
