eVinci – a nuclear reactor in a container

News | October 2, 2024

By Wisse Hettinga

Westinghouse Submits Preliminary Safety Design Report to Site eVinci™ Test Reactor at Idaho National Laboratory

Westinghouse Electric Company announced it has submitted its eVinci™ Microreactor Preliminary Safety Design Report (PSDR) to the Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Reactor Innovation Center (NRIC). Westinghouse is the first reactor developer to reach this milestone in support of siting its test reactor at NRIC’s Demonstration of Microreactor Experiments (DOME) test bed at Idaho National Laboratory (INL).

“The completion of the PSDR for the eVinci test reactor is an important step towards enabling a microreactor developer to perform a test in our DOME facility,” said Brad Tomer, acting director of NRIC. “As a national DOE program and part of INL, the nation’s nuclear energy research laboratory, NRIC is committed to working with private companies such as Westinghouse to perform testing and accelerate development of advanced nuclear technologies that will provide clean energy solutions for the U.S.”

“This PSDR submission is a critical step to bringing the Westinghouse eVinci Microreactor to commercial operation,” said Jon Ball, President of eVinci Technologies at Westinghouse. “We are targeting deployment of multiple eVinci microreactors across the world by the end of the decade, and the strong and continued partnership with INL and the Department of Energy is instrumental to our efforts.”

The eVinci microreactor builds on decades of industry-leading Westinghouse innovation to bring carbon-free, safe and scalable energy wherever it is needed for a variety of applications, including providing reliable electricity and heating for remote communities, universities, mining operations, industrial centers, data centers and defense facilities, and soon the lunar surface and beyond. The resilient eVinci microreactor has very few moving parts, working essentially as a battery, providing the versatility for power systems ranging from several kilowatts to five megawatts of electricity, delivered 24 hours a day, seven days a week for eight-plus years without refueling. It can also produce high temperature heat suitable for industrial applications, including alternative fuel production, such as hydrogen, and has the flexibility to balance renewable output. The technology is factory-built and assembled before it is shipped in a container.