Nuclear Startup To Build Reactor Plant At Manhattan Project Site

Radiant Industries Inc., a California-based nuclear startup, plans to build a factory for its reactors at a site in Tennessee that was once part of the Manhattan Project. 

Radiant expects to break ground early next year, and the facility may be producing small reactors by 2028, according to a company statement on Monday. The land for the new factory in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, was used by the US government in the 1940s to enrich uranium that was critical for the original atomic bombs.

"What was formerly the first Manhattan Project site will now be the site of the first portable nuclear generator production," Doug Bernauer, Radiant's founder and chief executive officer, said in the statement. "By 2028, we'll be rolling out the first factory-built nuclear generator, and within a few years we'll be producing over a dozen per year."

Radiant is part of growing wave of companies developing advanced nuclear designs that can be produced in factories, a strategy aimed at making the technology faster and cheaper. However, the approach remains unproven in the US, and the company still needs approval from regulators to build its 1-megawatt Kaleidos system.

The company said the Oak Ridge site will the first in the US to mass-produce small reactors.

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