The US Department of Energy has awarded $3.9m (€3.6m) to three US-based advanced nuclear energy developers to design experiments to test microreactor designs in the Demonstration of Microreactor Experiments (Dome) test bed at Idaho National Laboratory.

The DOE said Radiant, Ultra Safe Nuclear Corporation and Westinghouse will further their microreactor designs through a front-end engineering and experiment design (Feeed) process. The Feeed process supports developers in planning for the design, fabrication, construction, and testing of fuelled reactor experiments.

“The Feeed process will bring three microreactor designs one step closer to reality” said assistant secretary for nuclear energy Kathryn Huff. “These technologies will give choices to diverse communities looking to transition to a clean energy future.”