TECHNOLOGY LICENSING OPPORTUNITY: Advanced Metal Hydride Microreactor Platform

Solicitation description

Response Deadline: July 17, 2026 Los Alamos National Laboratory has developed an integrated technology platform that solves the core materials and engineering barriers preventing rapid deployment of compact nuclear microreactors. By combining a proprietary crack-free fabrication process, a thermally protective heat pipe moderator design and a complete core architecture built from proven nuclear materials, the platform enables organizations to produce high-performance reactor components that are smaller, more reliable and faster to manufacture than those achievable with conventional methods. The approach reduces fuel requirements by up to 50% compared to unmoderated designs, eliminates the complex environmental control systems traditionally needed to protect advanced moderators and scales from laboratory prototypes to industrial production without requiring process adjustments for different batch sizes. The Challenge Compact nuclear microreactors depend on solid moderator materials to slow neutrons efficiently within a small volume, yet producing and maintaining these materials at the quality and scale required for deployment remains a major obstacle. Converting bulk metal into a usable moderator involves significant physical changes that frequently cause cracking, rendering components structurally unsound and dimensionally out of tolerance. Traditional fabrication methods require careful calibration for each batch size and create conditions that accumulate internal damage over repeated processing cycles. Once fabricated, moderator materials face a second challenge inside the reactor: At the high operating temperatures needed for efficient power generation, hydrogen escapes from the moderator and migrates unpredictably through the system. Conventional moderator materials begin losing hydrogen above 500°C, and even advanced alternatives require active cooling or complex containment engineering to maintain stable performance over the reactor’s lifetime. Problems Solved The Advanced Metal Hydride Microreactor platform addresses each of these barriers through a coordinated set of innovations. The crack-free fabrication method reverses the traditional manufacturing logic: Instead of carefully metering the hydrogen supply, it holds the hydrogen atmosphere constant and uses a controlled temperature profile to govern the reaction. The process inherently maximizes material quality at every stage, minimizing the internal stresses that cause cracking. Because the process parameters remain independent of batch size, the method is directly scalable to industrial production. For in-reactor operation, the thermally isolating heat pipe design places the moderator inside a protected zone that eliminates the temperature swings responsible for hydrogen loss — allowing moderator performance to be predicted directly from known operating conditions rather than managed through complex active systems. The microreactor core design then integrates these components with...

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