The Department of Energy announced a “rebirth” of the nation’s nuclear industry, as an advanced reactor design has successfully completed a criticality demonstration.
The test, part of the Reactor Pilot Program, centered on Antares Nuclear’s design of the Mark-0. The test concluded that the reactor can operate safely and establishes a basis that allows other reactors to produce electricity in 2027. The department said the criticality test was one of the “most significant technological achievements in nuclear energy in over 40 years, this test will go on to inform the design and licensing of future commercial reactor deployments.”
“It is fitting that on the eve of our nation’s 250th anniversary, we are witnessing a historic moment for American energy,” said Energy Secretary Chris Wright. “For the first time in more than four decades, a new privately developed non-light-water reactor has reached criticality in the United States. Thank you to President Trump for his bold leadership and thank you to the bold scientists and entrepreneurs at Antares and Idaho National Laboratory who helped make this moment possible. I look forward to seeing continued progress in the American nuclear renaissance.”
The efforts align with President Trump’s May 2025 executive order directing the deployment of nuclear reactors. “The Federal Government must utilize its full authority to accelerate the secure and responsible development, demonstration, deployment, and export of United States designed advanced nuclear technologies to bolster readiness and enhance American technological superiority,” the order says.
Last year, the Department of Energy prepared to finance up to 19 new nuclear reactors. The financing sought to offer “low-interest loans to “credit-worthy hyperscalers that are putting equity capital in front of us,” Wright said at the time.
