She also says the company’s aiming towards a passive heat removal system using helium as a coolant, which significantly reduces the chances of an accident and also means that even if the reactor is suddenly shut down, the heat dissipation would prevent a chance at meltdown. First is that its small and portable design makes it ideal for a number of applications, ranging from providing backup power during emergencies to being set along the highways to provide power to electric vehicle charging. “And the safety records of those are pretty good.”Īpril Novak, a nuclear engineer at the Argonne National Laboratory who has been working with Radiant on the development of its reactors, notes that there are several aspects of Kaleidos’ design that makes it unique among other microreactor concepts being developed. “There’s a long list of reasons why these plants are a lot safer than the traditional big light water reactor,” he says. “There’s a lot less radioactive material there, the systems are a lot less complex and they’re harder to fail,” he says. When it comes to the safety of Kaleidos and other similar microreactor concepts, Todd Allen, the chair of nuclear engineering at the University of Michigan, tells Forbes that the risk is on par with that of reactors at dozens of college campuses around the country that are used for nuclear research. (To give you an idea of how hot that is, napalm creates temperatures of about 2000 degrees.) That’s well beyond the temperatures most nuclear reactors will ever get. Tests of the materials have taken the particles up to temperatures of over 3000 degrees Fahrenheit, with almost no damage. One major advantage of TRISO particles is that they have a very high melting point, making reactors based on the fuel theoretically meltdown-proof. The particles are then formulated into larger cylinders or spheres (depending on the reactor design) for use in reactors. Each of these small particles (which are about the size of a poppy seed) is comprised of uranium, oxygen and carbon covered by ceramic and carbon materials. Radiant Industries Building A Nuclear Power Plant In A BoxĪt the heart of Radiant’s generators, which it calls Kaleidos, is a nuclear fuel called TRISO particles. “Radiant is bringing the innovation mentality and engineering rigor that they honed in aerospace to nuclear, another industry in dire need of renewed ingenuity and innovation.”Ĭonceptual art of 5 Radiant reactors at a single site. “In recent years, wars, pandemics, ransomware attacks, and extreme weather events have pushed supply chains, power grids and people to the brink - creating a real inflection point for industries that haven’t had reason to change historically,” Andreessen Horowitz General Partner David Ulevitch, who has joined Radiant’s Board of Directors, told Forbes in a statement. The investment is geared towards accelerating development of the company’s nuclear power technology, with a goal of getting to commercial production in 2028. On Monday, Radiant announced that it has raised a $40 million series B round led by Andreessen Horowitz to bring about that future, bringing its total capital raised to $55 million. “In the past five to 10 years, there's been a vision of a new future where nuclear plays a role.” “I think the way people think about nuclear is changing now,” Bernauer, 41, says.
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