Last Energy's Texas pilot reactor clears final DOE safety analysis

Last Energy

The US Department of Energy has approved the Documented Safety Analysis for Last Energy's pilot reactor at the Texas A&M RELLIS site, the most comprehensive safety review in the DOE authorization process. The pilot can now move into readiness review, which the article calls the final step before authorization for criticality and reactor operations. Clearing the analysis does not by itself authorize operation.

• The review ran under the DOE Reactor Pilot Program, not the NRC, which licenses commercial plants.
• A preliminary safety analysis was approved in May 2026, followed by the final one; the pilot facility is already built.
• Last Energy was selected for the DOE pilot program in August 2025.
• The pilot is the PWR-5; the article gives no megawatt rating but says it uses the same full-scale core as the 20 MWe PWR-20.
• Commercial deployment would need separate NRC licensing; the company's four-module PWR-20 project in South Wales is still in licensing.