Nano Nuclear Energy has partnered with the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign to bring the KRONOS Micro Modular Reactor to campus.

It’ll be the first modern microreactor installed at a US university and marks a major milestone in the race to commercialize advanced nuclear.

To support the KRONOS project, Nano Nuclear has acquired a 23,537-square-foot facility on 2.75 acres in Oak Brook. The site includes a 7,400-square-foot non-nuclear demonstration area and will serve as a regional hub for engineering, testing, and collaboration.

Up to 60 nuclear engineers and researchers will work out of the facility to move KRONOS toward construction, licensing, and deployment.

The reactor itself will be hosted at UIUC, where it will partially re-power the Abbott Power Plant. The project is backed by infrastructure firm AECOM, which is leading environmental reviews, site drilling, and NRC permit preparation.

It’s goat is to make Illinois a national leader in demonstrating how advanced nuclear can integrate with real-world energy systems.

Microreactors are small-scale, factory-built nuclear systems designed for rapid deployment and consistent, carbon-free output. The KRONOS design is a high-temperature gas-cooled reactor that uses HALEU-based TRISO fuel, known for its high safety margins and containment resilience.

It’s expected to deliver up to 45 MW of thermal energy, with around 15 MWe output depending on conversion systems.

Unlike traditional large reactors, KRONOS uses dry cooling and molten salt-based thermal energy storage. This allows operators to decouple energy generation from electricity delivery, offering load-following capabilities suited for applications like data centers, microgrids, and remote industrial operations.

By placing a reactor like KRONOS in a real-world campus setting, Illinois is demonstrating how advanced nuclear can be deployed safely, efficiently, and in partnership with public institutions.

With demand for clean, always-on power rising fast especially in energy-hungry sectors like AI, manufacturing, and defense—this project puts Illinois in a leadership position for the next generation of energy innovation.

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In the 1980s, investors at First Chicago Bank faced a problem: how do you value a startup that could be worth hundreds of millions or zero?

Traditional methods didn’t work. So they built a new one and called it the First Chicago Method.

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