SpaceNukes wins DARPA agreement for autonomous reactor ground test

(SpaceEnergy) Space Nuclear Power Corporation has secured a DARPA agreement to develop and ground-test autonomous control technology for a Kilopower fission reactor, extending technology originally developed for space missions.

The Los Alamos-based company, known as SpaceNukes, announced the Other Transaction Agreement on 21 October under the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's Fast Capacitance (Fat Cat) programme.

SpaceNukes and Los Alamos National Laboratory will design, build and conduct a follow-on nuclear ground test incorporating active control rod operation.

The proposed configuration advances beyond the passively controlled architecture demonstrated during NASA's Kilopower Reactor Using Stirling Technology (KRUSTY) experiment in 2018.

DARPA's programme seeks to develop and experimentally validate reactor control models capable of managing rapid changes in reactor behaviour without human intervention.

Its published objectives specifically identify space and undersea environments, where compact reactors must operate remotely and respond to changing electricity demands.

The new agreement establishes a phased development programme covering design, procurement, integration and nuclear testing.

Hardware integration will take place at SpaceNukes' workshop in Medina, Ohio, under chief engineer Marc Gibson.

SpaceNukes holds a Los Alamos National Laboratory licence for Kilopower technology and aims to enable deployment of fission reactors in space.

The agreement represents a new development and testing commitment, not a completed nuclear demonstration or a spacecraft flight contract.

Neither the agreement's financial value nor the execution date or planned ground-test date was disclosed.