Three presenters, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Antares Industries and Oklo, achieve criticality milestones as advanced nuclear moves toward deployment
RIO RANCHO, NM, UNITED STATES, August 7, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — America’s advanced nuclear industry is moving from promise to proof.
In a matter of weeks, a remarkable series of reactor criticality milestones has demonstrated the accelerating pace of nuclear innovation in the United States. Three organizations participating in the inaugural Los Alamos Nuclear Forum — Los Alamos National Laboratory, Antares Industries and Oklo — are among the organizations advancing reactor technologies through criticality, one of the most important technical milestones on the path toward nuclear deployment.
The latest came August 6.
Oklo announced that its Groves Isotope Test Reactor achieved first criticality, establishing a controlled, self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction and adding another milestone to a rapidly growing list of advanced reactor demonstrations in the United States.
Two months earlier, on June 4, Antares Nuclear’s Mark-0 advanced reactor successfully completed a zero-power fueled criticality demonstration at Idaho National Laboratory. The achievement made Antares the first participant in the U.S. Department of Energy’s Reactor Pilot Program to reach criticality and marked the first time in more than 40 years that a new privately developed non-light-water reactor reached that milestone in the United States.
Los Alamos National Laboratory is also advancing its ZiaCore microreactor through criticality testing, reinforcing Los Alamos’ continuing role at the forefront of American nuclear science and reactor innovation.
These are more than individual technical achievements.
Together, they signal a larger shift across the industry: advanced nuclear is moving from designs, models and presentations toward physical testing, validation and deployment.
On August 25, many of the people and organizations leading that transition will come together at the inaugural Los Alamos Nuclear Forum.
From Innovation to Criticality to Deployment
Criticality is a defining moment in reactor development. It occurs when a reactor establishes a stable, self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction, allowing developers to validate important elements of reactor physics, design and operation.
Reaching criticality is not the same as commercial deployment or producing electricity for customers. It is, however, an important threshold between a reactor that exists primarily as a design and one undergoing physical operation and testing.
The pace has accelerated dramatically.
Antares reached criticality June 4. Valar Atomics followed June 18. Deployable Energy reached the milestone by the end of June, and Aalo Atomics followed in early July as part of an unprecedented period of advanced reactor testing supported by the Department of Energy.
The significance for the Los Alamos Nuclear Forum is difficult to miss.
Attendees will not simply hear predictions about technologies that may someday work. They will engage with organizations achieving measurable milestones now and learn from leaders confronting the engineering, regulatory, fuel, manufacturing, financing and commercialization challenges required to move from criticality toward deployment.
The Entire Nuclear Ecosystem
Reactor innovation is only one part of the story.
Commercial nuclear deployment requires an entire ecosystem: uranium resources, conversion, enrichment, advanced fuels, reactor technologies, national laboratories, manufacturing, utilities, transmission, project finance, commercialization, workforce, transportation, environmental stewardship, waste management, public policy and community engagement.
The Los Alamos Nuclear Forum was created to bring that ecosystem together.
Participants include the Nuclear Energy Institute, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories, the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, Oklo, Antares Industries, DISA URANIUM, Grants Energy, Waste Control Specialists, Eden Radioisotopes, Space Nuclear Corporation and organizations spanning advanced reactors, the fuel cycle, utilities, manufacturing, universities, investment and economic development.
The result is a gathering of people who are not simply discussing what advanced nuclear might become. Many are actively building it.
Why This Moment Matters
The recent criticality milestones change the conversation for decision makers.
For investors, operating demonstrations provide additional information about technology maturity, execution capability, supply chains and commercialization pathways.
For policymakers, the milestones demonstrate that decisions involving fuel availability, licensing, infrastructure, workforce and manufacturing increasingly affect technologies progressing toward real-world deployment.
For entrepreneurs and manufacturers, the emergence of multiple reactor platforms signals growing demand for components, engineering, services, fuels and partnerships across a developing domestic nuclear supply chain.
For utilities and infrastructure leaders, advanced reactors raise increasingly practical questions about future generation portfolios, grid reliability, siting and deployment.
Better decisions begin with better information. Increasingly, that information is coming from operating hardware, not simply presentations.
Grid Nuclear Nexus
The Forum’s Grid Nuclear Nexus discussions will connect reactor innovation with the infrastructure nuclear energy ultimately serves.
Reliable electricity underpins manufacturing, economic development, national security and critical infrastructure. The Forum will examine how nuclear generation, utilities, transmission, industrial demand and emerging reactor technologies intersect as the United States plans its next generation of energy infrastructure.
The discussion is particularly timely as advanced nuclear developers move beyond technology validation toward the harder questions of where reactors will operate, who will use their power, how they integrate with existing infrastructure and what will be required to deploy them at scale.
Why Los Alamos
There may be no more appropriate setting for this moment.
For more than 80 years, Los Alamos has been synonymous with nuclear science, engineering and national security. Today, ZiaCore and the broader innovation emerging from the national laboratory system demonstrate that this legacy is not simply historical.
Innovation continues.
On August 25, Los Alamos will become a meeting place for an industry experiencing extraordinary momentum.
Scientists nd engineers will be joined by investors, entrepreneurs, policymakers, utilities, manufacturers, fuel-cycle companies, national laboratories and infrastructure leaders examining what comes after innovation.
That is what makes this moment different.
Reactors are reaching criticality. Technologies are being validated. Companies are executing. Capital and supply chains are mobilizing. The nuclear ecosystem is taking shape.
The future of nuclear is no longer simply being discussed.
It is being built.
On August 25, many of the leaders building it will be in Los Alamos.
Registration is open at: www.losalamosnuclearforum.com
Scott Lopez
NM Nuclear Alliance
+1 505-399-9197
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