A compact, transportable nuclear reactor may come to Utah under new agreement

A micro nuclear reactor may be coming to Utah as the state’s Office of Energy Development announced it signed an agreement with Nuclea Energy, a Canadian nuclear technology developer, to explore siting a test reactor in central Utah.

Morpheus, the microreactor Nuclea Energy is developing, is “designed to be factory-built, transportable and scalable from approximately 3.5 MWe to 50 MWe,” the company said in a news release. 

The agreement aims to explore a site for the reactor at the Utah San Rafael Energy Lab, located in Orangeville, to advance the technology “toward demonstration and deployment.”

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“We are excited to be contributing to and benefitting from the nuclear innovation hub that Utah has fostered at (the San Rafael Energy Lab),” Josef Freundorfer, CEO of Nuclea Energy, said in the release. “We are confident that this partnership will help to prove the inherent advantages of our technology and accelerate our deployment schedule.” 

The agreement follows a series of similar actions Gov. Spencer Cox’s administration has taken toward bringing and developing nuclear developers in the state, including Valar Atomics, NuCube Energy, General Matter and TerraPower — all part of Cox’s efforts to make Utah a crucial part of the “nuclear renaissance” the Trump administration has called for in multiple executive orders.

With the memorandum of understanding signed in early June, Nuclea Energy said it hopes to advance research, development and commercialization of the Morpheus micro modular reactor, which is being promoted as a compact and transportable option for clean electrical power generation. 

The reactor also promises to operate at atmospheric pressure, “eliminating catastrophic failure risks associated with high-pressure nuclear systems,” according to the company’s website. The factory-built modules would allow them to be installed in months, not years.

With the agreement, Utah signed on to support the company as it engages with the U.S. Department of Energy and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, as well as exploring pathways to expand the company’s technology in the state.

“Utah is leading the nation in energy innovation, and our partnership with Nuclea is another step towards an abundant energy future that is reliable, secure and clean,” Emy Lesofski, Director of the Utah Office of Energy Development said in the release.