Radiant secured a competitive selection to test its commercial prototype at INL's historic Dome facility (built in the 1950s), which was originally slated for demolition. The test involves running the reactor at over 700°C for 150 continuous hours, marking the first full-power test at the lab in a very long time. ✦ AI generated
Speaker 1 · a16z Podcast · 2026-08-05 · original ↗
starts at this moment · 7:59
We're taking this unit to the Dome which is this 80 foot diameter structure that was built in the 50s. It actually had the experimental breeder reactor in it at Idaho National Laboratory. Since 2020, we've been on target for going there by 2026 and then we'll go critical. The system is designed to go to over 700°C and then we'll run for 150 hours continuously. That dome was going to be torn down and ultimately was repurposed for this purpose that now enables Radiant to be the first company that comes in that was selected through a competitive process. Radiant was selected. Simplistically speaking, the maturity of their technology, the maturity of their planning, the benefits of that test are going to be in terms of a full power test over a significant period of time, which will be our first full power test at the laboratory in a very, very long time.
verbatim transcript · starts at 7:59
7:57you're successful, then you can just start turning out that commodity. [snorts] And your customer then has a much much lower potentially even almost zero uncertainty in their cost in their on-site activities or just completely produced. That is a tremendous promise of factorybuilt nuclear. We're taking this unit to the dome which [music] is this 80 foot diameter structure that was built in the 50s. It actually had the experimental breeder
8:29reactor in it at Idaho National Laboratory. Since 2020, we've been on target for going there by 2026 [music] and then we'll go critical. The system is designed to go to over 700° C [music] and then we'll run for 150 hours continuously. >> That dome was going to be torn down and ultimately was repurposed for this purpose that now enables Radiant to be the first company that comes in [music]
8:53that was selected through a competitive process. Radiant was selected. Simplistically speaking, the maturity of their technology, the maturity of their planning, [music] the benefits of that test are going to be in terms of a full power test over a significant period of time, which will be our first full power test [music] at the laboratory in a very, very long time. When Radiant first started talking to ENL about testing in the dome, we were I
9:21think somewhere around 20 employees and we said four years from now, we're going to build a commercial prototype of our reactor and we're going to test [music] it in that facility. And they said, well, we're going to have to build out that facility, too, and you're 20 people. And so there's a lot of faith and trust [music] and process that we put in the way as we were developing
9:41both the product itself as well as the full test campaign, the test facility. And really through all of that is where we developed [music] the partnership. >> The executive orders that our president signed May [music] of last year accelerated everything. And so that is a critical component that has helped make this possible. As a number of companies [music] race, nobody has turned on a new commercial micro reactor ever before.
10:07And Radiant's going to be the first to do that. [music] [music] We don't design, build, and execute on safe reactors. >> [music] >> No one's going to buy them. We are a company that needs to make money. We are in the United States. Making money is pretty important to sustain to build out the full mission. If we were a cavalier and how we built even the prototype, we