INL receives its first delivery of TRISO fuel for mobile nuclear power
Curtis Jackson
IDAHO FALLS, Idaho (KIFI) – The Idaho National Lab is celebrating the arrival of a special kind of fuel called TRISO. TRISO stands for tri-structural isotropic particle fuel.
This fuel will power Project Pele, a first-of-its-kind mobile microreactor designed to give the military reliable energy anywhere, even if the grid goes down.
Think of the fuel as tiny, super-tough particles—about the size of poppy seeds—that can handle extreme heat and radiation. It’s made of uranium, carbon, and oxygen, and is formed into a small kernel. It’s then coated in multiple layers, including silicon carbide, which makes it extremely durable under high heat, radiation, and corrosive conditions.
A single cask can hold more than one-fourth of the TRISO fuel needed to fuel Project Pele.
Tuesday’s delivery is a huge milestone, showing years of work by top scientists and partners like the Department of Energy and the Army.
“This milestone reflects years of dedicated effort by the Office of Nuclear Energy’s Advanced Gas Reactor TRISO Fuel Qualification Program to fabricate and qualify TRISO fuel using world-class capabilities at INL’s Advanced Test Reactor and Materials and Fuels Complex, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory — capabilities that exist nowhere else in the world,” said John Wagner, INL director. “That investment is now enabling Project Pele to move forward with the speed and confidence our national security demands to accelerate American innovation and demonstrate the leadership that will define this era of nuclear energy.”
They say it’s a big step toward next-generation nuclear power and keeping critical operations running no matter what.
A GEO basket, the inner container of the shipping package, is removed from the
containment vessel’s transport cask.
“This is the first TRISO microreactor fuel delivered at its final destination,” added Jeff Waksman, principal deputy assistant secretary of the Army for Installations, Energy and Environment. “Project Pele is a transformational leap toward Gen-IV nuclear power, and the Army’s Janus Program will follow on to deliver affordable, reliable, commercial nuclear power to ensure that our critical infrastructure has power even if the electric grid is disrupted.”