Advanced nuclear
Pilotmomentum 65370 papers in 3 months (-19% yearly)$5.2B raised in 12 months20 companies
New fission reactor designs, smaller or using new coolants and fuels, meant to be cheaper, safer and faster to build.
Why pilot: Four advanced test reactors reached criticality by July 4, 2026, and TerraPower began building Kemmerer Unit 1 under an NRC permit. Jul 25, 2026
Dots under a month: dated events tracked here that month.
22 events
About advanced nuclear here
- Sub-areas
- Light-water small modular reactors, Microreactors, Sodium-cooled fast reactors, High-temperature gas reactors, Molten salt reactors, Advanced fuel (HALEU, TRISO), Underground reactors
- Stage evidence
- Pilot, Jul 25, 2026: Four advanced test reactors reached criticality by July 4, 2026, and TerraPower began building Kemmerer Unit 1 under an NRC permit. energy.gov
- Momentum
- 65 of 100: the mean of its ranks among the tracked fields for paper growth (13), funding in 12 months (88) and events in 90 days (94). Method
- Papers
- 1,627 in the 12 months ending two months ago, -19% against the 12 before (OpenAlex topics, journal and conference papers).
- Tracked here since
- Sep 25, 2026
Changes to this field
| Date | Change | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 25, 2026 | Advanced nuclearTechnology: Name, Advanced nuclear (was Advanced nuclear fission) | seed | energy.gov |