The recent delivery of advanced nuclear fuel to the Idaho National Laboratory’s Transient Reactor Test Facility marks a major milestone for Project Pele, a first-of-its-kind mobile microreactor prototype designed to provide resilient power for military operations.

The fuel, known as tri-structural isotropic, or TRISO, particle fuel, is made from uranium, carbon and oxygen, formed into a small kernel. This kernel is coated in multiple layers — including silicon carbide — that makes it extremely durable under high heat, radiation and corrosive conditions.

Thousands of these poppy seed-sized particles are combined into compact fuel forms used in advanced reactors like the one being developed under Project Pele by the Department of War’s Strategic Capabilities Office. The first delivery of T

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