Deployable Energy to test Unity nuclear battery in 2027

The U.S. Department of Energy has selected Deployable Energy to conduct a full-power demonstration of its Unity nuclear battery at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) in 2027. The testing will take place at the Demonstration of Microreactor Experiments (DOME) facility.

The demonstration aims to evaluate the compact reactor's ability to operate at full power and test its transportability. Specifically, the company intends to fuel the reactor at a factory, transport it to the INL with the fuel already loaded, and move it to a different location after operation. This process is designed to validate the system's utility for providing continuous electricity to industrial sites, ships, and remote locations without the need for conventional nuclear plant infrastructure at every site.

This selection follows a milestone achieved on June 30, 2026, when the Unity reactor reached criticality approximately 150 days after the project's launch. Deployable Energy noted that this achievement makes it the first company under the National Reactor Innovation Center’s Nuclear Energy Launch Pad initiative to reach this stage.