The U.S. Department of Energy has chosen 11 advanced nuclear projects as the first tranche of its Nuclear Reactor Pilot Program. 

The program was formed in June, a month after President Donald Trump issued a series of executive orders in an attempt to spur a U.S. nuclear renaissance. One of the orders gave the DOE a direct role in facilitating testing of next-generation nuclear power generation technology. (See Trump Orders Nuclear Regulatory Acceleration, Streamlining.) 

DOE said Aug. 12 that it will work with the 10 companies on their 11 projects with the goal of constructing, operating and achieving criticality with at least three reactors by July 4, 2026, on sites outside national laboratories. 

It is a new pathway toward fast-tracking commercial licensing. Trump directed this streamlining in his executive orders, saying over-regulation was stifling progress and was unnecessary, given the nuclear industry’s safety record.  

Skeptics countered that nuclear energy is safe because it is well-regulated, and worried about the effects of speeding the regulatory process on new reactor designs. 

And there are many, many new designs in various stages of development: The Nuclear Energy Agency in July updated its Small Modular Reactor (SMR) Dashboard, analyzing no fewer than 74 SMR designs in progress worldwide. The greatest number of designers —27 — have their headquarters in the United States. 

DOE alluded to this in its Aug. 12 news release, writing: “The diversity of applications received shows the remarkable breadth of innovation and ingenuity in American reactor developers.” 

DOE chose two designs from Oklo for the pilot program and one each from Aalo, Antares Nuclear, Atomic Alchemy, Deep Fission, Last Energy, Natura Resources, Radiant Industries, Terrestrial Energy and Valar Atomics. 

Participation in the pilot program will give them a fast-tracked approach to future commercial licensing. It also may help unlock private funding. Each company is responsible for all costs for designing, manufacturing, constructing, operating and decommissioning their test reactors. 

When it announced the pilot program June 18, DOE said it builds on existing efforts to demonstrate advanced reactors on DOE sites through microreactor test beds and other projects led by the Department of Defense or private industry. It is not, however, designed to demonstrate suitability of reactors for commercial purposes. 

One of the companies that won designation for the pilot program, Aalo, said in an Aug. 12 news release that a key part of the pilot program is cutting red tape. 

Participating companies will be assigned a DOE concierge team to cut through governmental red tape, so that, for example, a developer would wait just days for a sign-off authorization that previously might have taken weeks or months to secure. 

“This is a pivotal moment for advanced nuclear, and we’re proud to be at the forefront,” CEO Matt Loszak wrote. 

The Roster

The companies chosen for the pilot program show the diversity of the advanced nuclear sector as it scrambles to develop safe, affordable, workable and scalable reactor designs and fuel supply chains: 

• • Aalo is developing a sodium-cooled, uranium-dioxide-fueled experimental reactor that will form the basis of its Aalo Pod, a highly modular 50-MWe reactor targeted at the data center industry. 
  • Antares is developing a kilowatt-scale reactor for special purposes including underwater and outer space use. 
  • Deep Fission proposes to build 15-MWe SMRs one mile underground. 
  • Last Energy is developing a 20-MWe micro modular nuclear power plant; the company was in the news earlier in 2025 with a plan to place 30 of them behind the meter at a Texas data center. 
  • Natura Resources is advancing a liquid-fueled, molten salt-cooled reactor that could have multiple end uses beyond power generation, including desalination and hydrogen or steel production. 
  • Oklo is updating existing technology to design liquid metal-cooled fast reactors. 
  • Atomic Alchemy, which Oklo acquired earlier in 2025, is developing a radioisotope supply chain. 
  • Radiant is pursuing mass-produced microreactors that can be transported via truck like a shipping container; this month it announced an agreement to deliver its 1-MW Kaleidos to the Department of Defense in 2028. 
  • Valar Atomics is building a 100-kW TRISO-fueled high-temperature gas reactor — in the Philippines, because of the regulatory burden that the company says the Nuclear Regulatory Commission would place on the effort if carried out in the U.S. 

Valar was in the news earlier in 2025 when it joined a group of states and startup companies in a lawsuit arguing that the NRC should regulate the existing fleet of gigawatt-scale reactors and leave regulation of SMRs to states, because SMRs’ small size is accompanied by small potential risk. 

“Should our suit succeed, Valar Atomics and our colleagues in this industry will provide abundant energy for all mankind,” wrote CEO Isaiah Taylor, the self-taught engineer who founded Valar.