The front-end engineering and experiment design phase for the eVinci microreactor has been completed by Westinghouse Electric Company, the first reactor developer to reach this stage in support of siting the system at a U.S. Idaho National Laboratory (INL) test bed. The power technology could potentially start testing at the lab in the world’s first microreactor test bed as early as 2026.

The commercial heat-pipe cooled microreactor is engineered to produce 5 MW of electricity on sites as small as two acres of land and will operate for eight or more years before refueling. The compact system is 3 m in diameter and can be manufactured in a factory rather than on-site. When the fuel is depleted, the entire reactor is shut down, loaded onto a truck and returned to the factory for refueling or replacement with a new reactor.

Source: Westinghouse Electric Company

The eVinci system uses tri-structural isotropic fuel pellets packed into rods and inserted into the core. The result is a fuel assembly that is extremely durable, resistant to heat and corrosion, and produces a self-limiting nuclear reaction.

No moving parts are needed to keep the reactor running, including the cooling system. Instead of circulating water, air, helium or molten salts, the reactor uses a solid-steel monolith to house the core and absorb heat. Alkali heat pipes passively conduct heat away using phase changes in the alkali metal to cool the reactor and convert the heat into electricity.

The eVinci microreactor developers will next develop the timeline for the end-to-end reactor test program at INL. The technology is expected to support broad applications ranging from powering remote communities to mining operations and data centers.