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Kaleidos is a 1‑megawatt reactor that fits in a shipping container; its fuel…

2026-08-03 · 20:52 UTC ·@a16z ·1 min read

Brief

Kaleidos, a 1‑megawatt shipping‑container SMR, has had its fuel arrive at Idaho National Laboratory for full‑power testing—the first US reactor design to run in the DOME test bed. Radiant President Tori Shivanandan argues these factory‑built units (50/year from Oak Ridge, customer deliveries in 2028) can shore up grid fragility for hospitals, supermarkets and remote towns during outages.

Why it matters

Kaleidos is a 1‑megawatt reactor that fits in a shipping container; its fuel arrived at Idaho National Laboratory for full‑power testing and it is the first new US reactor design to run in the DOME test bed.

Key details

  • Radiant's Oak Ridge factory is designed to build 50 Kaleidos units per year with customer deliveries planned in 2028; target siting examples include behind supermarkets, inside fence lines, next to hospital ICUs, and powering remote towns at the end of long transmission lines.
  • Radiant President Tori Shivanandan presents Kaleidos and other small modular reactors (SMRs) as fixes for grid fragility amid extreme events, citing recent pressures such as a DOE emergency order across 17 states and New York City heat‑wave power problems.
Cleaned source text

"Kaleidos is our 1-megawatt reactor that fits in a shipping container."

"Its fuel just arrived at Idaho National Laboratory for full-power testing, the first new US reactor design to run in the DOME test bed, and our factory in Oak Ridge is designed to build 50 units a year with customer deliveries in 2028."

"It's the scale that fits behind the supermarket, inside the fence line, next to the hospital that can't lose the ICU, and the town at the end of a hundred miles of wire."

"The grid is the biggest machine humans ever built, and it's struggling. I keep my house at the proper 74 degrees so as far as the grid's concerned, I'm a model citizen."

"But when the blackouts start, it doesn't matter, lights go out for model citizens and AC criminals alike. The grid doesn't need better manners from us. It needs a new machine."

Radiant President Tori Shivanandan writes on where our grid falls short, and how small modular reactors (SMRs) can help.

Tori Shivanandan (@torishiv)

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— https://nitter.net/torishiv/status/2084318243918123491#m