DOD Picks BWXT Design for ‘Project Pele’ Prototype Nuclear Microreactor
The Department of Defense (DOD) has picked BWX Technologies’ (BWXT’s) microreactor design for its “Project Pele” full-scale transportable prototype. The selection closes out a much-watched contest with X-energy for the contract from the DOD’s Strategic Capabilities Office (SCO) to build and operate what could be the nation’s first advanced microreactor.
Lynchburg, Virginia-based BWXT will now manufacture and deliver the prototype microreactor to Idaho National Laboratory (INL) for testing by 2024. “The prototype will be built under a cost-type contract valued at approximately $ 300 million, depending on options selected, by BWXT Advanced Technologies LLC in facilities in Lynchburg, Virginia, and Euclid, Ohio,” the company said on June 9. “Over the next two years, BWXT expects that approximately 120 employees will work on the project, including roughly 40 skilled trades, engineers and other positions that will be hired to support this effort and other projects.”
Project Pele will comprise a high-temperature gas-cooled (HTGR) mobile microreactor that will be capable of producing 1 MWe to 5 MWe. …