ARC Clean Technology has signed a Strategic Partnership Project agreement with Battelle Energy Alliance (BEA) to deploy its first ARC-100 small modular reactor (SMR) at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL). BEA operates and manages INL on behalf of the US Department of Energy (DOE). The agreement establishes a comprehensive, multi-year framework to support First-of-a-Kind (FOAK) deployment of the ARC-100 at INL.
The ARC-100 is a 100 MWe integrated sodium-cooled fast reactor with a metallic uranium alloy core. The design is based on the Experimental Breeder Reactor-II (EBR-II) fast reactor prototype designed, built, and operated by Argonne National Laboratory (ANL). The physical reactor was constructed and operated in the Idaho desert at a site known as Argonne National Laboratory-West (ANL-West), located within the National Reactor Testing Station in Idaho. Because it was located geographically in Idaho, the physical facility and custody of the reactor site were officially transferred to the newly formed INL when DOE restructured the site in 2005.
The physical ground it occupied is now part of the INL campus, while the historic breakthrough, technology, and operational legacy belong to ANL. The EBR-II operated at ANL from 1961 to 1994. ARC Nuclear signed an agreement with GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy in March 2017 to collaborate on the development and licensing of an SMR using proprietary technology from GEH’s PRISM reactor, which is also based on the EBR-II.
In the US, ARC is a grant funding awardee of the DOE Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program (ARDP) to develop and deploy the ARC-100 in the US. INL has been an integral member of ARC’s team under the DOE Advanced Reactor Concepts 2020 (ARC-20) programme. INL’s support has encompassed key areas including fuel design and analysis, Probabilistic Risk Assessment (PRA) and regulatory engagement with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).
The new multi-year collaboration leverages the INL’s specialised resources to support the reactor across its lifecycle from detailed design through demonstration, operation, and eventual decommissioning or mission conversion. As the DOE’s lead laboratory for nuclear energy research and development, INL offers unique DOE-authorised facilities including the Advanced Test Reactor (ATR), the Transient Reactor Test Facility (TREAT), and the Materials and Fuels Complex (MFC).
Under the agreement, INL will provide technical expertise in nuclear fuel design, advanced materials development, detailed physics analysis, high-performance computing and modelling, irradiation testing, reactor commissioning and operation, and site development. The laboratory will continue to assist ARC with comprehensive safety risk assessments and direct regulatory engagement with NRC.
Individual Project Task Statements (PTSs) will define specific scopes of work, deliverables, and funding within the strategic framework, each subject to DOE approval. The partnership underscores ARC’s commitment to rigorous, science-based development and to working within established US nuclear regulatory and quality assurance frameworks as it advances toward demonstration and deployment.
“This partnership with Idaho National Laboratory marks a pivotal step in ARC’s mission to bring safe, reliable, advanced nuclear energy to the world,” said Irfan Ali, President & Chief Strategy Officer, ARC Clean Technology. “INL’s capabilities in reactor design, materials science, and regulatory engagement are unmatched, and we look forward to working alongside their expert teams to demonstrate the promise of our technology.”
Jess Gehin, INL Associate Laboratory Director for Nuclear Science & Technology, noted: “INL specialises in advanced reactor technologies, and we look forward to supporting ARC as they work toward the first deployment of the ARC100. Our teams will contribute our expertise in design review, materials evaluation and safety analysis to help guide the project forward.”
The ARC-100 completed Phase 2 of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) Vendor Design Review (VDR) in July 2025. CNSC concluded that no fundamental barriers to licensing had been identified. The technology is being advanced in partnership with New Brunswick Power (NB Power) at their Point Lepreau site in New Brunswick. In 2023, NB Power submitted a Licence to Prepare Site application to the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) for a commercial demonstration of the ARC reactor, and the utility is also considering ARC technology as part of a plan for additional SMR capacity at the Lepreau site.
The link between ARC’s Canadian and US operations is built on a shared technology platform, unified corporate leadership, and a joint North American market strategy targeted at powering heavy industry and hyperscale data centres. The data and operational history inherited from the US provided the technical foundation that allowed ARC Canada to pass Phase 2 of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission’s (CNSC) Vendor Design Review.
The operations bridge corporate, regulatory, and commercial functions across the border. The company operates as a cross-border entity, headquartered in Washington, DC, with its primary Canadian operations base in Saint John, New Brunswick. A unified executive team, led by global CEO James Wolf, manages the commercial rollout across both nations.
Separate government funding mechanisms accelerate a single product. In the US, ARC leverages grant funding from the DOE ARDP alongside the partnership with BEA at INL. In Canada, the company relies on investments and infrastructure partnerships with provincial crown corporations such as NB Power.
ARC coordinates its North American commercial pipeline by targeting cross-border industry developers. Through its September 2025 agreement with Nucleon Energy, ARC is planning synchronised deployments for Combined Heat and Power (CHP) plants in both Alberta, Canada, and Texas, USA. ARC’s June 2025 joint framework with Deep Atomic targets co-locating ARC-100 units next to next-generation AI and data infrastructure installations spanning across both the US and Canadian markets.
