Why Deployable. Why Unity.

After Decades of Nuclear Innovation, Where are all the Microreactors?

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Microreactors have always been the holy grail of distributed power. From the very beginning of the nuclear age, the promise was clear: abundant energy, liberated from fuel insecurity and fragile supply chains. And yet, more than 75 years later, that promise remains largely unfulfilled. From the first light bulb powered by nuclear energy in the Idaho desert in 1951, to the last decade of aggressive federal policy for advanced nuclear energy, there still isn’t a commercially available microreactor.  

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Asking the Hard Questions

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At Deployable Energy, we did not start with a preconceived solution, we started with a question: What would it actually take to make microreactors deployable at scale? Hundreds, then thousands of units, competing directly with fossil fuels on cost, logistics, and reliability?

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In 2022, like many others in the industry, we initially pursued designs aimed at subsea and space applications. These concepts relied on what had become the prevailing advanced-reactor toolkit: High Assay Low Enriched Uranium (HALEU) fuel, TRISO particles, Graphite and Metal Hydride moderator, Exotic coolants.

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On paper, these designs were elegant—a beautiful Ferrari. In practice, after rigorous supply-chain mapping, techno-economic analysis, and regulatory assessment, they revealed a fundamental flaw: they could not scale the way we needed them to.

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The barriers were structural:

• Fuel constraints

• Exotic materials and bespoke manufacturing processes

• Immature or non-existent supply chains

• High cost, long lead times, and regulatory uncertainty

These were not problems that would be solved with more R&D or another clever reactor geometry. Further, as we dug into the history of reactor development, all these concepts had all been tried before but were stalled by issues of scalability. At that point, we made a deliberate decision to start over. Even as the Administration and congress work aggressively to unlock many of these challenges, we are aiming to move forward leveraging the existing supply chain to bring a novel reactor that can scale to market as quickly as possible.  

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Back to First Principles

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If microreactors were ever going to displace fossil fuels, the design had to be driven not by novelty for novelty's sake, but by what already scales.

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We went back to first principles and asked a different set of questions:

• What fuels can be supplied globally, at scale, today?

• What materials already have codes, suppliers, and quality systems?

• What logistics chains already exist and work reliably?

• What regulatory frameworks are well understood?

We took a deep dive into the history of power reactors for commercial electricity generation, with a keen eye for maximizing profitable with limited local manufacturing infrastructure in place. The result was not a science experiment but innovation to in order to figure out how to use the existing industrial base.

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Four Design Principles That Change Everything

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1. Robust, Existing Fuel Supply.

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By staying at standard 5% low-enriched uranium (LEU), Deployable Energy remains inside a robust, proven, and scalable global fuel supply. This decision reduces cost, geopolitical risk, and regulatory friction while enabling predictable deployment timelines.

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Further fuel burnup is a key economic parameter which is well characterised for LEU by the existing fleet.  Similar to a high-performance synthetic lubricant designed for extended service intervals, HALEU is intended for systems that take advantage of longer fuel life and higher burnup to unlock its full economic and operational benefits.  

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As many developers are moving to LEU+ fuel to leverage longer fuel lifecycles, the existing LEU supply chain will increase in availability, as manufacturing facilities are unlikely to be retrofitted to handle higher enrichments. This increase in LEU availability will provide greater supply chain surety for our reactor offering.

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2. No Exotic Materials.

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Advanced nuclear has been slowed by what are effectively materials-science novelty: TRISO cladding, molten salts, metal coolants, hydrides, and superalloys. While proven in the lab, they are not yet commercially available at scale.

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We deliberately chose commodity, proven materials:

• UO₂ fuel

• Zirconium-alloy cladding

• Light-water moderation

• Conventional nuclear-grade steels

This allows us to leverage existing suppliers, codes, QA systems, and decades of operational experience, rather than inventing new ones.

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3. Truly Transportable. Truly Deployable.

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Fossil fuels win on logistics today. For nuclear to lead tomorrow, it must win there too. That’s why our systems are factory-built, containerized modules using standardized ISO shipping form factors, compatible with existing lifting, shipping, and haulage infrastructure. We utilize the existing LEU fuel transportation ecosystem, avoiding the need to build entirely new logistics and regulatory systems. Our size, weight, strong inherent safety, security and safeguards enable a near universal siting paradigm. The outcome is simple: minimal site work, minimal laydown, and repeatable, rapid installation anywhere in the world.

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4. A Supportive Regulatory Posture.

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Using LEU and avoiding exotic materials and processes, and using well known material, we align directly with well-understood LWR physics and industrial norms. This allows regulators to understand and review our design as something familiar and incrementally evolutionary, rather than novel and uncertain. That shift unlocks predictable licensing pathways, faster approvals, and lower execution risk—which is essential for commercial deployment.

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Why Unity Exists

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The Unity Nuclear Battery is the direct result of these first-principles decisions and understanding of the historical reasons behind stalled reactor concept developments.

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The goal here is to build airplanes (products), not airports (infrastructure). That is why Unity is a 1-MW, factory-built, sealed, plug-and-play nuclear power system designed to fit inside a standard shipping containers. It is modular by design, enabling deployments from single units megawatt to multi-gigawatt fleets.

Unity is engineered to serve the markets where energy security, national security, and cost of energy converge:

• Data centers and AI infrastructure

• Remote resource extraction and heavy industry

• Remote and Islanded communities

• Maritime and littoral applications

• Dual-use civil and defense systems

In these environments, Unity is designed to displace fossil fuels directly—not just on emissions, but on delivered cost, logistics simplicity, and reliability.

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Why Deployable Wins Where Others Struggle

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Many advanced-reactor companies focus on delivering the first unit. Deployable Energy is focused on delivering the next thousand.

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Unlike other advanced reactor vendors, our technology does not depend on exotic fuels, fragile supply chains, or first-of-a-kind materials programs. That is why our pathway to scale is faster, cheaper, and more predictable—and why our target economics are competitive with fossil fuels on delivered cost.

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Built in Houston. Built to Scale.

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Deployable Energy is headquartered in Houston, Texas—the energy capital of the world.

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From our 300,000-square-foot state-of-the-art manufacturing facility, we sit at the center of the global energy, maritime, defense, and industrial ecosystems required to industrialize nuclear technology.

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We have established deep partnerships across:

• The U.S. Department of Energy and national laboratories

• Major nuclear fuel and component suppliers

• Academic and research institutions

• Strategic customers across data centers, defense, and industry

This is not an abstract roadmap. It is an execution engine.

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The Path Forward

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The convergence of AI-driven electricity demand, energy transition, and national security priorities has made distributed nuclear power a strategic imperative. The question is no longer whether microreactors are needed. The question is who can deliver them at scale.

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By removing the barriers that have historically held micro-nuclear back, Deployable Energy has created a credible path to 100,000 Unity Nuclear Batteries deployed by 2040, delivering reliable, emissions-free power at a target cost of approximately 5¢/kWh.

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This is how micronuclear finally fulfills its original promise.

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Why Deployable.Why Unity.Because scale—not novelty—is what changes the world.