Dear editor
As a lifelong resident of Wyoming, I believe we are standing at the threshold of one of the most promising economic and technological opportunities our community has ever seen: welcoming Radiant Nuclear’s Kaleidos micro-reactor project to be built right here in our hometown.
I thought I may be able to provide some insight in favor of the plant and was uniquely versed in explaining some of the properties of TRISO fuel and its inherent safety.
The Kaleidos reactors use TRISO fuel (short for TRi-structural ISOtropic particles) which are tiny uranium kernels individually wrapped in three alternating layers of carbon and ceramic.
These are not the fuel rod designs you remember from old nuclear plants or Cold War headlines.
Each kernel is its own miniature containment vessel, built to withstand temperatures far beyond what conventional fuel can survive and engineered to endure immense mechanical stress without releasing radioactive material.
In fact, the U.S. Department of Energy has called TRISO “the most robust nuclear fuel on Earth.”
The Kaleidos micro-reactors are intended for a variety of uses including warzones after all.
Inside the reactor, TRISO kernels work the same way all nuclear fuel does: the uranium inside undergoes fission, releasing energy, but only because it is within the precise environment of the reactor core surrounded by the right geometry, moderated by the right materials, and sustained by a carefully managed neutron flux.
Without that flux, the fission reaction stops instantly.
The protective carbon and ceramic coatings remain intact under almost any conceivable stress, and it would take temperatures on the scale of a full core meltdown to breach them.
But here’s the key: those temperatures cannot occur unless a meltdown is already happening.
In other words, the cause would have to precede the effect, the conditions required to damage the coating can only exist if it has already been melted by that very heat.
This is why TRISO is so secure: its very design prevents the chain of events that could make it dangerous.
A good way to picture this is to think of each TRISO kernel like a bullet.
A bullet lying on a table is harmless, it cannot fire itself.
It has to be chambered in the right firearm, and have the trigger pulled before it can do anything.
TRISO is similar. Outside of the controlled environment of a reactor core, it is inert.
Even inside, the carbon and ceramic layers keep all fission products sealed within.
And if the reactor were damaged, even in the extreme chaos of a combat zone, the kernels would remain stable, intact, and incapable of causing harm to the public.
That’s why TRISO is described as inherently safe: it doesn’t rely on pumps, pipes, or outside power to avoid meltdown.
Its safety is built into the fuel itself.
For our community, this means that hosting a Kaleidos manufacturing plant would not bring the risks many people imagine when they hear the word “nuclear.”
Sincerely
William Wallace, Casper
