The Duck Curve#national labs
DOE clears MARVEL microreactor's final safety analysis for dry criticality
DOE's Idaho Operations Office approved the final documented safety analysis for MARVEL, the test microreactor Idaho National Laboratory leads for DOE, authorizing a dry, near-zero-power criticality configuration INL anticipates reaching in December 2026, INL said on October 6, 2026. The reactor's primary coolant system arrived at INL's Transient Reactor Test Facility in mid-September; INL's own project page still dates initial criticality to 2027.
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Natura receives Oak Ridge's 1960s FLiBE salt for its Abilene reactor
Natura Resources said on September 18, 2026 that it received FLiBE salt from DOE's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, via Idaho National Laboratory, for the MSR-1 reactor being built at Abilene Christian University; the release says the salt contains 99.99% enriched lithium-7 and that Natura was selected through a competitive DOE solicitation issued in August 2025. ANS reports more than 2 metric tons, the secondary coolant of the 1965 to 1969 Molten Salt Reactor Experiment, now to be the primary constituent of the reactor's fuel salt. The NRC issued the construction permit on September 16, 2024.
LLNL and Pacific Fusion push Sirius pulser past 3,000 shots
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Pacific Fusion completed a 3,000-shot reliability campaign on the Sirius pulsed-power prototype, reaching 60 gigawatts per 100-nanosecond pulse at 95 percent energy efficiency by May 15, 2026. The CRADA-funded results, published jointly by the lab and the private fusion company on July 16-17, 2026, are the data behind Pacific Fusion's plan to scale the impedance-matched Marx generator architecture toward a full high-yield fusion driver.