On July 4, 2026, Aalo Atomics turned on a commercial-scale advanced nuclear reactor. They call it the Critical Test Reactor (CTR), and it went from breaking ground to a sustained chain reaction in less than eight months. That makes it one of the quickest reactor builds in 80 years. In fact, Aalo went from their founding to creating fission in under three years.
Powering AI Data Centers with Nuclear Reactors
The CTR has a full-scale core to test the nuclear parts for their upcoming 10-megawatt reactors. The plan is to group these into 50-megawatt plants called Aalo Pods to power AI data centers.
Aalo built the facility, got the licenses, ran the safety programs, and manufactured 10 megawatts worth of fuel assemblies in-house. This zero-power test reactor is the first step in their extensive plan. Next comes a fully functioning 10-megawatt power reactor, and after that, they plan to deploy the commercial pods for data centers.
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Producing the Nuclear Reactors on an Assembly Line
They are already working on that second step, called Project Ascension. It will be located at the Aalo-X Campus at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL). This new reactor is scheduled to actually produce 10 megawatts of electricity for an on-site data center in 2027.
To build these fast enough, Aalo is moving into a one-million-square-foot factory. They plan to build these modular plants on an assembly line so they can mass-produce them.
The entire project was pushed forward by an Executive Order in May 2025, which asked for at least three advanced reactors to reach criticality by July 4, 2026. Aalo’s reactor turned on at 12:20 a.m. MT that morning and put that number to four advanced reactors.
The company celebrated with a private livestream, and they plan to share the five-hour video of the process leading up to criticality with the public this week.
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