Aalo-X Progress Update & What’s Next

🚀 A Project Moving with Purpose and Urgency

Aalo is moving at a pace the nuclear industry hasn’t seen in decades. In just over twelve months, we’ve gone from concept, to site-selection for Aalo-X, full-scale manufacturing prototyping, and major design and environmental milestones. In an industry where progress is often measured in decades, Aalo-X is breaking the mold. This speed is made possible by our strategic clarity, an incredibly focused and mission-driven team, and the depth of our past experience working with the U.S. Department of Energy, Idaho National Laboratory (INL), and the National Reactor Innovation Center (NRIC).

The support from DOE-ID, led by Bob Boston; NRIC, under Brad Tomer; and INL’s leadership, including John Wagner, Jess Gehin, and Ron Crone, has been critical. They recognize the urgent national need to demonstrate advanced nuclear technology as soon as possible, and their commitment to the industry's success is genuine. To highlight that support, we are honored to include statements from some of these leaders, who have each played a vital role in enabling Aalo-X to move at unprecedented speed.

Bob Boston shared, "From the moment Aalo submitted their expression of interest to DOE-ID, their approach is disciplined, their design is grounded in operating experience, and they’ve worked hand-in-hand with our team to move quickly but responsibly."

Brad Tomer emphasized, “Collaborations, such as this one between NRIC and Aalo Atomics, are essential if we’re going to advance American nuclear energy innovation. The integration of expertise and capabilities from the nation's leading nuclear energy laboratory, along with the agility, innovation, and resources of the industry, illustrates how together we can expedite the deployment of advanced nuclear technology.”

Jess Gehin added, “Aalo-X is the kind of project that aligns with INL’s purpose. It’s fast-moving, technically ambitious, and focused on real-world deployment. It’s exciting to watch Aalo’s progress.”

Their perspectives capture why this project matters not only to Aalo, but to the future of U.S. nuclear energy and the national mission to dominate in AI.

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📍 Key Milestones Completed To-Date

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✅ Conceptual Design Review (CDR)

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Over 40 subject matter experts from INL and DOE conducted a comprehensive, independent review of our ~1,200-page conceptual design package. They spent two weeks reviewing the material in advance, attended a 2-day (16 hour) live review at our Idaho office, and followed up with three more weeks of additional reviews, comments and clarifications. Their feedback was constructive and thoughtful—and now, we’re addressing their official comments as we prepare our Conceptual Safety Design Report (CSDR) submission to DOE-ID in the coming weeks.

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✅ DOE Siting Questionnaire Submitted

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We submitted our siting questionnaire to the DOE, detailing Aalo-X’s characteristics, potential impacts to the environment and the surrounding community during construction, operation, and eventual decommissioning. The site identified as preferential for development is a previously disturbed parcel of land within the INL boundary—already the subject of an approved EIS from the Versatile Test Reactor (VTR) program (which is 30X larger in power output than Aalo-X). This gives us a huge head start. Some additional surveys, such as seismic boreholes and cultural / biological assessments are still required, and are about to begin.

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✅ Site Granted by BEA Land Use Committee

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The site is now officially allocated for Aalo-X. What was previously a tentative location is now allocated land for the home of Aalo-X by the Land Use Committee.

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✅ Environmental Assessment Determination (EAD) Issued

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DOE has issued an EAD, formally determining that Aalo-X qualifies for an Environmental Assessment (EA, which takes months) rather than a more extensive Environmental Impact Statement (EIS, which can take years). This decision significantly shortens our environmental review timeline. Our team has already begun drafting the EA and is targeting a rapid turnaround to keep construction on schedule.

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✅ First Non-Nuclear Prototype Built in Austin

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Inside our new manufacturing facility in Austin, Texas, we’ve built a full-scale non-nuclear prototype of Aalo-X’s reactor. This is already giving us invaluable hands-on experience with assembly and module integration. We will be implementing NQA-1 later this year, and our goal is to pass DOE and INL audits ASAP in order to start Aalo-X nuclear construction.

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Why These Milestones Matter

These milestones are not just boxes checked; they represent real momentum toward construction and criticality. The site is secured, the conceptual design has been independently reviewed, and our first physical hardware is built and ready for non-nuclear system testing. We’ll be sharing more on the results of those tests soon.

Having this level of regulatory and technical readiness this early is unheard of. We can’t emphasize enough how proud we are of our speed. To highlight again, 18 months ago, we were a two-person company. Seven months ago, we were a group of 10 people utilizing a shared WeWork office. We now have 60 people, a 40,000-square-foot (sqft) pilot factory, and a full-scale reactor prototype.

We can’t wait to unveil what we accomplish in the next 12 months.  

The intention is to eventually unlock the holy grail of grid-independent, reliable, clean nuclear energy to power the growth of AI in the US and maintain American competitiveness. See our recent blog post on the Executive Orders from last week, for more context on the significance of DOE Authorization.

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Next Milestones on the Horizon

The pace won’t slow down. In fact, it will speed up, as we build momentum, hire more employees, and raise more capital. Everything we have accomplished thus far has been with a lean and mean team, on a shoe-string budget.

Our next steps include finalizing the CSDR, submitting our Preliminary Safety and Design Results package, and initiating long-lead procurement activities. Our internal target is to begin construction in April 2026 (don’t tell anyone). Some say that’s aggressive—we agree. But bold timelines are necessary to transform the nuclear industry, and we’re proud to be leading the charge. As a reminder, Aalo-X will be a power-producing full-scale experimental nuclear power plant.

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Why We’re Ready to Build

We’ve already prototyped the modules that will form the heart of Aalo-X. Our supply chain is in place—there is nothing in our reactor or plant that we can’t build or buy today. In the past year, we’ve initiated fuel supply contracts, expanded our engineering and QA teams, and grown the company significantly while maintaining a culture of speed and ownership. We plan to double the current team in the next 6-12 months (to around 100 people), to bring Aalo-X to life. (PS, we're hiring).

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Final Thoughts – Momentum Toward First Sodium Reactor in a Generation

Aalo-X is on track to be the first new experimental sodium-cooled reactor capable of producing power built in the United States in over a generation. It may also be the first nuclear facility and experimental reactor, and the first factory-built nuclear plant to move from concept to construction in less than 30 months. We don’t take these milestones lightly, and we fully recognize how difficult this will be.

Building a first-of-a-kind nuclear power plant is not easy. It challenges every part of a company, from engineering and manufacturing to regulatory, finance, commercialization, and project execution. But we’ve leaned into that difficulty. Every step we’ve taken has involved close collaboration with our partners, tireless work from our team, and a relentless focus on learning and improving. Aalo-X is more than an experimental power plant—it’s a statement of what’s possible when speed, rigor, and humility come together.

With each milestone, we get closer to deploying Aalo-1 commercially, and we remain deeply grateful for the support and trust that’s made this rapid pace of progress possible.