Civil microreactors: the leasing and test-bed lane
Where it stands: Microreactors moving into civilian service: campus deployments, DOE test-bed selections, and the commercial leasing model, kept apart from defense demos.
- 2026-10-07→08 (microreactor lane diversifies — civilian) (1) Last Energy's micro-modular reactor at Texas A&M-RELLIS cleared its DOE Documented Safety Analysis (WNN) — moves to readiness review, the final step before fuel/Operation authorization. (2) Deployable Energy's Unity nuclear battery selected for DOE/NRIC's DOME testbed at INL (WNN). (3) BWXT's BANR selected for a New Brunswick project (Prodigy Clean Energy
- Pabineau and Eel River Bar First Nations, Belledune) — microreactor + Indigenous-partner siting goes international. These sit beside the Army's leases in the demo fleet — the D2D between defense and civilian micros is vendor-shared (BWXT, Last Energy). Watch: MARVEL criticality (coolant in, Oct 7), Last Energy's authorization, BANR's Canadian permitting.