3 Nuclear Startups Hit a Big Milestone. Why It Matters—and Why It Doesn’t
3 Nuclear Startups Hit a Big Milestone. Why It Matters—and Why It Doesn’t
三家核能初创公司达成重要里程碑：为何意义重大，又为何无关紧要
Three startups are providing the fireworks for the Department of Energy’s Fourth of July celebrations by meeting a major nuclear milestone. They’ve turned on new reactors as part of a pilot program aimed at kick-starting what Energy Secretary Chris Wright calls “America’s nuclear renaissance” to develop and deploy the next generation of atomic energy.
三家初创公司通过达成一项重大的核能里程碑，为美国能源部的“独立日”庆祝活动增添了“烟火”。作为一项试点计划的一部分，它们启动了新型反应堆。该计划旨在启动能源部长克里斯·赖特（Chris Wright）所称的“美国核能复兴”，以开发和部署下一代原子能技术。
Other companies in the pilot program have signaled that they may reach criticality—a term used to describe a nuclear reactor sustaining a chain reaction, a key step in providing power—shortly after July 4, following a deadline set by President Donald Trump in an executive order last year. But experts say that while the pilot is good PR for the industry, there’s still a long way to go before new reactor designs become commercial realities.
该试点计划中的其他公司也表示，继去年唐纳德·特朗普总统通过行政命令设定截止日期后，它们可能会在7月4日之后不久实现“临界”（指核反应堆维持链式反应，这是提供电力的关键步骤）。但专家指出，虽然该试点项目对行业而言是一次很好的公关，但在新型反应堆设计成为商业现实之前，仍有很长的路要走。
“These prototypes mean everything and nothing,” says Adam Stein, the director of the Nuclear Energy Innovation program at the Breakthrough Institute. “They do a lot for the companies reaching criticality, but even for those companies, they’re not commercial products. They’re test reactors.”
“这些原型机既意味着一切，也意味着什么都不是，”突破研究所（Breakthrough Institute）核能创新项目主任亚当·斯坦（Adam Stein）表示。“对于实现临界的那些公司来说，这意义重大，但即便对这些公司而言，它们也不是商业产品。它们只是测试反应堆。”
For decades, the American nuclear landscape has been dominated by large, light-water reactors, which use water to move heat and sustain the nuclear reaction. The dream of building smaller reactors with different, more innovative designs has long remained out of reach, thanks in part to a slow regulatory environment and the massive upfront cost required for small companies to develop new reactor designs.
几十年来，美国核能领域一直由大型轻水反应堆主导，这种反应堆利用水来传递热量并维持核反应。长期以来，建造采用不同且更具创新性设计的小型反应堆的梦想一直难以实现，部分原因是监管环境缓慢，以及小型公司开发新反应堆设计所需的巨额前期成本。
“The industry has long been viewed as stuck—a nuclear reactor was always 10 years away,” says Stein. The pilot program “shows that’s not true, if you intentionally move faster. It changes the narrative, and it changes the perception. That means a lot for the investment community.”
“该行业长期以来被认为陷入停滞——核反应堆总是‘还需要10年才能实现’，”斯坦说。该试点项目“表明，如果你有意加快步伐，情况并非如此。它改变了叙事，也改变了人们的看法。这对投资界意义重大。”
A growing number of investors and tech figures in Silicon Valley see smaller nuclear reactors, which can provide 24/7 carbon-free energy to power data centers and other operations, as part of a new golden age of technology. The tech world has leaned heavily on the Trump administration to slash regulations and speed up the development of smaller nuclear designs. The administration has responded with a series of actions, including creating the pilot program via an executive order last year. In classic Trumpian fashion, the executive order, issued in May 2025, set an aggressive timeline to get at least three reactors critical, coinciding with the country’s 250th anniversary celebrations on July 4.
越来越多的硅谷投资者和科技界人士认为，小型核反应堆可以为数据中心和其他业务提供全天候的无碳能源，是科技新黄金时代的一部分。科技界极力推动特朗普政府削减监管，并加快小型核能设计的开发。政府对此采取了一系列行动，包括去年通过行政命令设立了该试点计划。以典型的“特朗普风格”，该行政命令于2025年5月发布，设定了激进的时间表，要求至少有三座反应堆实现临界，并与7月4日该国250周年庆典同步。
In February, the Department of Energy quietly slashed a number of environmental and safety regulations for reactors operating under that department’s purview, including the ones being built as part of the pilot program. (Similar regulatory cuts are now being worked out in the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which approves reactors that will be sold commercially.) Stein says that shortening processes for requirements like environmental impact statements, which can take years, created “significant time savings” for companies in the program.
今年2月，能源部悄悄削减了该部门管辖范围内反应堆的多项环境和安全法规，包括作为试点计划一部分正在建造的反应堆。（核管理委员会目前也在制定类似的监管削减措施，该委员会负责批准将进行商业销售的反应堆。）斯坦表示，缩短环境影响声明等耗时多年的流程要求，为参与该计划的公司节省了“大量时间”。
The reactor designs in the pilot program have benefited not just from cutting red tape. Several of the companies also have help from federally funded national laboratories. Valar Atomics reached criticality late last year onsite at Los Alamos National Laboratory using a core with the startup’s fuel and key structural components provided by the lab. (The company reached criticality again with a second reactor at a state-funded lab site in Utah earlier this month.) Antares Nuclear and Deployable Energy—the other startups in the pilot program that have met the executive order’s July 4 deadline—also reached criticality at national labs.
试点计划中的反应堆设计不仅受益于精简行政程序。其中几家公司还得到了联邦资助的国家实验室的帮助。Valar Atomics去年年底在洛斯阿拉莫斯国家实验室现场实现了临界，其堆芯使用了该初创公司的燃料，以及实验室提供的关键结构组件。（本月早些时候，该公司在犹他州的一个州立实验室基地利用第二座反应堆再次实现了临界。）Antares Nuclear和Deployable Energy——试点计划中另外两家达到行政命令7月4日截止日期的初创公司——也都在国家实验室实现了临界。
Matt Loszak, the cofounder and chief executive officer of Aalo Atomics, credits the government prioritizing new reactor development for the speed at which his company has been able to move. His company is part of the pilot program and has yet to hit criticality, though it expects to do so soon.
Aalo Atomics的联合创始人兼首席执行官马特·洛萨克（Matt Loszak）认为，政府对新型反应堆开发的优先支持，是他公司能够快速推进的原因。他的公司是该试点计划的一部分，目前尚未实现临界，但预计很快就会实现。
“Before, you’d try to get a signature, and maybe it would sit on someone’s desk for five weeks,” he says. “Now, it’s like, done the next day, because it’s a priority for the nation.”
“以前，你试图获得一个签字，它可能会在某人的办公桌上放上五周，”他说。“现在，就像第二天就能完成一样，因为这是国家的优先事项。”
Reaching criticality does not mean these reactors are necessarily generating electricity: Aalo’s reactor, for instance, is lacking the sodium component that the company’s final commercial reactor will have. (On Thursday, Valar’s reactor design powered an Nvidia chip during a short demonstration, becoming the first advanced reactor in the US to provide electricity.) And simply proving that criticality can happen in a lab setting—something that numerous college campuses do across the country—does not mean that a small reactor is ready to be hooked up to the grid or deployed to power a data center.
实现临界并不意味着这些反应堆一定在发电：例如，Aalo的反应堆缺乏其最终商业反应堆将具备的钠组件。（周四，Valar的反应堆设计在一次简短的演示中为一颗英伟达芯片供电，成为美国首个提供电力的先进反应堆。）仅仅证明在实验室环境下可以实现临界——这是全国无数大学校园都能做到的事情——并不意味着小型反应堆已经准备好接入电网或部署用于为数据中心供电。
Commercial products will still have to go through licensing with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, a process that has traditionally taken years. (Regulatory cuts from the Trump administration could significantly shorten the process; Wright told CNBC that the NRC is working with his agency to create a “fast” timeline for commercialization for the reactors in the program.) Stein says that supply chains, especially for fuel, could also pose a massive hurdle for companies in the pilot program looking to take their products to market. That’s particularly true for some of the companies that have had help from the Department of Energy sourcing fuel.
商业产品仍必须通过核管理委员会的许可，这一过程传统上需要数年时间。（特朗普政府的监管削减可能会显著缩短这一过程；赖特告诉CNBC，核管理委员会正在与他的机构合作，为该计划中的反应堆制定商业化的“快速”时间表。）斯坦表示，供应链，尤其是燃料供应链，也可能成为试点计划中寻求将产品推向市场的公司面临的巨大障碍。对于一些从能源部获得燃料采购帮助的公司来说，情况尤其如此。
“It’s an amazing achievement to bring new reactors critical and deploy new reactor technology in 2026,” says Brett Rampal, the senior director of nuclear and power strategy at Veriten, an investing and strategy firm. (Aalo is a Veriten client.) But Rampal cautions that some in the industry may be over-romanticizing the idea of a new golden age for nuclear energy without fully acknowledging the financial realities that plants remain expensive and time-consuming to build.
“在2026年实现新反应堆临界并部署新技术是一项了不起的成就，”投资与战略公司Veriten的核能与电力战略高级总监布雷特·兰帕尔（Brett Rampal）表示。（Aalo是Veriten的客户。）但兰帕尔提醒说，业内一些人可能过度浪漫化了核能新黄金时代的概念，而没有充分认识到核电站建设依然昂贵且耗时的财务现实。
“If you go back and you look at all the nuclear power plants we built throughout the country, on average, t…”
“如果你回顾一下我们在全国各地建造的所有核电站，平均而言，……”