Idaho National Laboratory's National Reactor Innovation Center (NRIC) is partnering with Purdue University's Applied Research Institute (PARI) to demonstrate construction techniques meant to reduce the costs and risks of building new reactors, Nuclear News reported on Nov. 9.
Engineers will build two structures at Purdue in West Lafayette, Indiana: a scaled steel-plate composite containment vessel and a reactor building. The work is designed to generate data on constructability, quality, and performance across power plant design, procurement, fabrication, erection, concrete placement, structural integrity testing, and deconstruction.
The project is part of NRIC's Advanced Construction Technology Initiative (ACTI), which focuses on small modular reactor construction techniques that could avoid the cost overruns and schedule delays common in conventional reactor projects. Other technologies in the initiative include vertical shaft construction, modular composite steel-and-concrete walling, advanced monitoring, and digital twins. PARI previously tested a modular composite walling system under ACTI. The Department of Energy established NRIC in 2019.
Several industry groups are contributing. The Electric Power Research Institute will provide nondestructive evaluation, advanced welding, and digital twin validation expertise. The Nuclear Energy Institute will advise on quality assurance and regulatory alignment. Purdue's Robert L. and Terry L. Bowen Laboratory for Large-Scale Civil Engineering Research will contribute large-scale structural testing.
"Bowen Laboratory brings the large-scale testing expertise this project demands," said Amit Varma, a Purdue civil engineering professor. INL described the initiative as an effort to close the gap between reactor research and commercial deployment. The report did not disclose funding amounts for the work.
Source: ANS Nuclear Newswire - https://www.ans.org/news/2026-11-09/article-8566/inl-and-purdue-university-collaborate-on-construction-demonstration/