Deployable Energy will conduct the full-power demonstration of its Unity Nuclear Battery in 2027 inside the DOME, the microreactor testing facility at Idaho National Laboratory operated by the Department of Energy’s National Reactor Innovation Center. The announcement, made on October 7, 2026, marks a direct transition from criticality to full operation for one of the most advanced transportable nuclear systems currently under development in the United States.
Unity is a 1 MWe light-water-moderated, helium-cooled microreactor. It is designed to be transported with nuclear fuel already loaded on board, to operate in full autonomy, and to be relocated to a different site at the end of operations. The DOME test will verify all three of these characteristics under real-world conditions. The facility, built within the containment structure of the former Experimental Breeder Reactor-II, can accommodate experimental reactors with fuel loads of up to 20 thermal megawatts. It is not dedicated to a single project: it hosts one developer after another, providing a shared national infrastructure that reduces the costs and timelines of each individual test campaign.
The DOME selection follows an already significant milestone. On June 30, 2026, Unity achieved criticality — the point at which a reactor independently sustains a controlled nuclear chain reaction — roughly 150 days after the project was initiated. Deployable Energy thus became the first company in NRIC’s Nuclear Energy Launch Pad program to reach this milestone, and helped fulfill the third criticality target required by Executive Order 14301 by July 4, 2026. The company has described this achievement as the fastest and least costly reactor development in American nuclear history.
The institutional framework is the Nuclear Energy Launch Pad, an initiative launched to bridge the gap between the conceptual phase and the commercialization of advanced nuclear technologies. The NRIC, established in 2019, coordinates work between industry and national laboratories to bring new reactor designs from the test bench to the market. Deployable Energy has operated within this framework since the start of its campaign at INL, with direct support from the DOE Idaho Operations Office. The DOME selection is therefore not a starting point, but an accelerated continuation of a path already underway.
The 2027 campaign also includes a second demonstration in a maritime environment, in collaboration with Hornbeck Offshore. The two tests — one on land, one at sea — aim to validate Unity across distinct operational environments. The underlying objective is to gather sufficient technical data to initiate the regulatory process and prepare the system for commercial deployment. Industrial applications at remote sites, offshore installations, and military or civilian infrastructure in hard-to-reach areas are the primary markets identified by the company. If the 2027 tests confirm expected performance, Unity could become one of the first Western transportable microreactors to reach a concrete commercial phase before the end of the decade.
