Aalo breaks ground for DOE pilot reactor project

Aalo Atomics announced it has broken ground for its experimental reactor in Idaho near the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory.

The Austin, Texas-based startup nuclear company was selected as one of the 11 projects under DOE’s reactor pilot program and plans to reach by July 4, 2026, according to Aalo’s Aug. 28 press release.

Under the program, DOE plans for at least three reactors to reach criticality by July 4, 2026. 

Aalo’s project, Aalo-X, will be a nuclear power plant made up of a single sodium-cooled reactor. Its reactor will be manufactured in a pilot factory in Austin, Texas and will be transported and installed at the INL site, according to the press release. 

Aalo X’s reactor will serve as a precursor to Aalo Pod, the company said. An Aalo Pod will contain five sodium-cooled 10-megawatt reactors and will use uranium dioxide fuel.

The company plans to power a data center at Aalo-X’s site in Idaho by July 2027, according to the press release. 

“We are very well positioned to pull this off, because our plan all along has been to deploy our first power plant on DOE land with DOE authorization,” Aalo CEO Matt Loszak said in an Aug. 12 press release on Aalo’s DOE reactor pilot selection. “We are already well underway on the work involved to pull this off, and winning this RFA [request for applications] will only accelerate us.”