Latest milestone
INL produced the first of an expected 72–75 fuel-salt batches required for criticality.
2025-12 · DOE MCRE fuel milestone
Open primary source ↗← All deployments
Molten Chloride Reactor Experiment
A fast-spectrum, salt-fueled experiment intended to inform commercial molten-chloride reactor deployment.
Lead company · TerraPower →
Program · MCRE · LOTUS
Fuel production underwayHigh confidence
Deployment stage6 / 8Physical
Deployment trajectory
1Interest
2Preliminary
3Development
4Contractual
5Ready
6Physical
7Operational
8Replication
Next milestone
Complete fuel production, install the experiment in LOTUS, obtain authorization, and begin the planned test campaign.
- Responsible
- INL, Southern Company, TerraPower, and DOE
- Key blocker
- Fuel-salt production, facility integration, authorization, and 2028 test readiness
GenerationGen IV
ScaleTest reactor
Reactor familyMSR
RoleResearch / test
CapacityNon-power experiment
Reporting basisGovernment-reported