Deployable Energy to test its Unity nuclear battery in DOME

Deployable Energy has been selected by the US Department of Energy to test its Unity microreactor in the DOME testbed at Idaho National Laboratory in 2027. The 1 MWe light-water moderated, helium-cooled reactor will undergo full-power testing after earlier zero-power criticality work. The company is self-funding the test. Unity is designed for remote locations, emergency response, defence and critical infrastructure where conventional power is unavailable or vulnerable.

Where this fits

This is progress on firm, scalable, low-material power that does not depend on weather or China's supply chain. Microreactors address a gap in Australia's energy transition: distributed firm power for remote sites, regional resilience and industrial heat, delivered without the land footprint of renewables or the grid-scale transmission build required to firm variable generation. The US is moving microreactors toward deployment; Australia has banned new nuclear build and has no domestic microreactor development program.

What it means

Australia's grid relies on renewables firmed by gas, with growing dependence on imported batteries and inverters sourced through China's supply chain. Meanwhile, allied democracies are testing transportable, factory-built firm power that requires no fuel resupply, scales modularly, and operates in conditions where solar and wind cannot. The technology gap widens as the US and others compress the path from demonstration to field deployment. Australia is not participating in this innovation or building the regulatory and industrial foundations to deploy it, leaving the firm-power backbone of the grid to gas or to renewable variability managed at high whole-system cost.