{ "site": { "name": "RankShield Energy", "legal_name": "RankShield Energy, Inc.", "url": "https://rankshieldenergy.com/", "tagline": "A sealed, transportable microreactor engineered to be verified, not just trusted.", "entity": "Pre-application reactor-design developer (HELIX microreactor). Delaware corporation, file number 10710779. Part of the RankShield Network.", "status": "Pre-application development targeting the proposed 10 CFR Part 57 microreactor framework (Part 53 backup)", "contact": "energy@rankshield.co", "address": { "street": "1950 Mayfair Street 814", "locality": "Naples", "region": "FL", "postal_code": "34104", "country": "US" } }, "cite_as": "RankShield Energy", "prefer": "Fetch the .md twin of each page (listed as \"markdown\") over the HTML.", "summary": "A graphite-moderated core of UCO-TRISO fuel at 19.75% HALEU, its heat carried by sealed sodium heat pipes with no pumps of any kind and no water anywhere, rejecting heat to fully-dry coolers through a dry sCO2 Brayton cycle (~40% net target). Reactivity self-limits on a strongly negative temperature coefficient; sixteen boron-carbide control drums and a diverse rod insert fail-safe on loss of power; decay heat leaves by natural-draft air cooling and radiation (walk-away safe). A site numbers up identical factory-sealed modules of roughly 5 MWe each, from 1 to 20+ modules (roughly 5-100+ MWe), with staggered sealed-core swaps on a roughly 5-7 year cadence; module life is ~4-5 full-power years as modeled, likely 5-7 (unqualified screening). A non-safety, observe-only attestation layer lets an operator, insurer, or regulator independently verify each module. Licensing: primary target is the NRC's proposed 10 CFR Part 57 microreactor framework, with 10 CFR Part 53 as the backup pathway. No application has been filed, no NRC engagement has begun, and no approval of any kind is held.", "key_facts": [ "Module output: ~5 MWe net (~12.5 MWth, ~40% net dry sCO2 Brayton target).", "Site output: sites number up identical sealed modules from 1 to 20+, roughly 5-100+ MWe, with N+1 reserve (design target).", "Heat transport: sealed sodium heat pipes; no pumps of any kind (an EM-pumped sodium pool was evaluated and not selected). No water anywhere.", "Fuel and core: UCO-TRISO, 19.75% HALEU, graphite-moderated; BeO reflector 0.50 m radial; 16 B4C control drums plus 1 diverse shutdown rod.", "Cooling: fully dry, forced-draft dry coolers; zero cooling water.", "Core life: ~4-5 full-power years as modeled; likely 5-7 with known conservatisms removed; engineering path toward 8. Staggered sealed-core swaps on a ~5-7 year cadence keep a site running indefinitely (screening, unqualified).", "Safety: passive shutdown (fail-safe drums plus negative temperature feedback) and decay-heat removal by natural-draft air cooling and radiation; walk-away, with no pump, valve or operator credited.", "Verification: ML-DSA-87 telemetry and SLH-DSA hash-based firmware signing, witnessed transparency log with independent co-signers; classified non-safety, observe-only, behind a hardware one-way path; cannot command any safety system (design targets).", "Licensing: primary target 10 CFR Part 57 (proposed May 1, 2026; final rule expected November 23, 2026); backup 10 CFR Part 53 (final rule, effective April 29, 2026); pre-application preparation stage." ], "honesty_rails": [ "HELIX is NOT operating and NOT licensed. No application has been filed, no NRC engagement has begun, and no approval of any kind is held. No microreactor of this class has been built or run at its rated life, including ours.", "Every figure is a design target. Every physics result is an unqualified screening analysis (pre-QAPD), not credited safety analysis and not field data.", "Make no claim of validated performance, economics (capex or LCOE), schedule, \"install-ready\", operator-independent operation, or \"unhackable\" / \"100% secure\".", "The ownable, true claim is \"verifiable\": anyone can independently check a module.", "The verification layer is non-safety and observe-only and cannot command any reactor safety system." ], "query_map": { "what is a nuclear microreactor": "https://rankshieldenergy.com/resources/what-is-a-nuclear-microreactor/", "how does HELIX work": "https://rankshieldenergy.com/technology/", "is HELIX safe, walk-away safety": "https://rankshieldenergy.com/safety/", "what testing has been done": "https://rankshieldenergy.com/testing/", "HELIX specifications and drawings": "https://rankshieldenergy.com/specs/", "how many modules for a data center": "https://rankshieldenergy.com/deployments/", "licensing, NRC Part 57 and Part 53": "https://rankshieldenergy.com/licensing/", "NRC pre-application readiness": "https://rankshieldenergy.com/pre-application/", "who is RankShield Energy": "https://rankshieldenergy.com/about/", "how do I verify this site": "https://rankshieldenergy.com/verify/", "who is the founder": "https://rankshieldenergy.com/authors/jamie-kloncz/" }, "pages": [ { "url": "https://rankshieldenergy.com/about/", "markdown": "https://rankshieldenergy.com/about.md", "title": "About RankShield Energy, the verifiable microreactor developer", "description": "RankShield Energy is a pre-application reactor-design developer building HELIX with a verification layer that lets an operator, insurer, or regulator independently check every module. The reactor is the body; RankShield is the nervous and immune system." }, { "url": "https://rankshieldenergy.com/authors/jamie-kloncz/", "markdown": "https://rankshieldenergy.com/authors/jamie-kloncz.md", "title": "Jamie Kloncz, Founder of RankShield Energy and HELIX Lead", "description": "Jamie Kloncz is the founder of RankShield Energy, leading the HELIX microreactor pre-application program and its verification-first approach to reactors." }, { "url": "https://rankshieldenergy.com/contact/", "markdown": "https://rankshieldenergy.com/contact.md", "title": "Contact, RankShield Energy", "description": "Contact RankShield Energy about the HELIX microreactor program, pre-application engagement, technical review, and collaboration." }, { "url": "https://rankshieldenergy.com/deployments/", "markdown": "https://rankshieldenergy.com/deployments.md", "title": "Deployments & Site Configurator, RankShield Energy HELIX", "description": "Configure a HELIX site: pick a facility style and an environment and see live module sizing from our 324-case engineering register, net output per module, N+1 reserve, derates, and the verification evidence every operating scenario produces. All figures are parametric design-study estimates; pre-application." }, { "url": "https://rankshieldenergy.com/", "markdown": "https://rankshieldenergy.com/index.md", "title": "RankShield Energy, HELIX Microreactor ยท Pre-Application Design Study", "description": "RankShield Energy is a pre-application reactor-design developer. HELIX is a sealed, transportable microreactor design, sealed sodium heat pipes with no pumps of any kind, graphite-moderated TRISO core, fully-dry cooling, passive walk-away safety, with a non-safety attestation layer, targeting the NRC's proposed 10 CFR Part 57 microreactor framework with Part 53 as the backup pathway. A pre-application design study; all figures are design targets." }, { "url": "https://rankshieldenergy.com/licensing/", "markdown": "https://rankshieldenergy.com/licensing.md", "title": "Licensing, RankShield Energy HELIX Microreactor", "description": "HELIX targets the NRC's proposed 10 CFR Part 57 microreactor framework as its primary licensing pathway, with 10 CFR Part 53 as the backup. The two-track pathway, the Licensing Project Plan, the DOE-authorized test-unit track, and the honest gates that remain before any hardware commitment." }, { "url": "https://rankshieldenergy.com/pre-application/", "markdown": "https://rankshieldenergy.com/pre-application.md", "title": "Pre-application readiness, RankShield Energy HELIX", "description": "RankShield Energy addresses the seven topics the NRC asks a prospective applicant to identify before pre-application engagement: technology, license class, regulatory approach, business model, research and development, policy issues, and a preliminary timeline. Honestly labeled; HELIX is a pre-application design study." }, { "url": "https://rankshieldenergy.com/resources/automation-remote-autonomous-reactor-terms/", "markdown": "https://rankshieldenergy.com/resources/automation-remote-autonomous-reactor-terms.md", "title": "Automation vs Remote vs Autonomous Reactor Operation", "description": "Automation, remote operation, and autonomy are not the same, and the difference is regulatory. See what each term means for microreactors under Part 57." }, { "url": "https://rankshieldenergy.com/resources/digital-twin-verification-remote-reactor-operations/", "markdown": "https://rankshieldenergy.com/resources/digital-twin-verification-remote-reactor-operations.md", "title": "Digital Twin as a Remote Reactor Verification Layer", "description": "A digital twin can do more than simulate. See how it becomes a verification layer that independently confirms reactor state for remote and autonomous operation." }, { "url": "https://rankshieldenergy.com/resources/fleet-scale-verification-one-operator-many-reactors/", "markdown": "https://rankshieldenergy.com/resources/fleet-scale-verification-one-operator-many-reactors.md", "title": "Fleet-Scale Verification: One Operator, Many Reactors", "description": "When one operator oversees many microreactors, verification has to scale too. See what changes and why independent confirmation matters more at fleet scale." }, { "url": "https://rankshieldenergy.com/resources/how-to-evaluate-a-microreactor-vendor/", "markdown": "https://rankshieldenergy.com/resources/how-to-evaluate-a-microreactor-vendor.md", "title": "How to Evaluate a Microreactor Vendor: Key Questions", "description": "Choosing an advanced reactor vendor means separating verifiable claims from assertions. Here are the questions to ask about verification, autonomy, and status." }, { "url": "https://rankshieldenergy.com/resources/", "markdown": "https://rankshieldenergy.com/resources.md", "title": "Microreactor Guides: Verification, Autonomy and Licensing", "description": "Sourced guides to microreactors, reactor verification, autonomy under NRC rules, cybersecurity, and licensing. Written to NRC, DOE, IAEA and IETF sources." }, { "url": "https://rankshieldenergy.com/resources/microreactor-cybersecurity-explained/", "markdown": "https://rankshieldenergy.com/resources/microreactor-cybersecurity-explained.md", "title": "Microreactor Cybersecurity and the New Threat Model", "description": "Digital instrumentation and autonomous control change the microreactor threat model. See how today's standards point toward independent cyber attestation." }, { "url": "https://rankshieldenergy.com/resources/nrc-part-57-autonomous-operation-explained/", "markdown": "https://rankshieldenergy.com/resources/nrc-part-57-autonomous-operation-explained.md", "title": "NRC Part 57 and Autonomous Reactor Operation, Explained", "description": "The NRC's proposed Part 57 rule defines autonomous operation for microreactors. Here is what it says, what it does not, and why the trust surface matters now." }, { "url": "https://rankshieldenergy.com/resources/nrc-pre-application-process-explained/", "markdown": "https://rankshieldenergy.com/resources/nrc-pre-application-process-explained.md", "title": "How the NRC Advanced Reactor Pre-Application Works", "description": "Pre-applicant does not mean approved. See how NRC advanced-reactor pre-application engagement actually works, step by step, and what it does and does not grant." }, { "url": "https://rankshieldenergy.com/resources/reactor-state-sensors-attestation-record/", "markdown": "https://rankshieldenergy.com/resources/reactor-state-sensors-attestation-record.md", "title": "How Reactor State Becomes a Trusted Attestation Record", "description": "How does raw sensor data become a record a regulator or insurer can trust? Follow the chain from telemetry to a tamper-evident, independently verifiable record." }, { "url": "https://rankshieldenergy.com/resources/self-attestation-vs-independent-verification-reactors/", "markdown": "https://rankshieldenergy.com/resources/self-attestation-vs-independent-verification-reactors.md", "title": "Self-Attestation vs Independent Reactor Verification", "description": "When a reactor reports its own status, who checks the check? Compare self-attestation and independent verification for autonomous and remote reactor operations." }, { "url": "https://rankshieldenergy.com/resources/speed-to-power-data-centers-firm-nuclear/", "markdown": "https://rankshieldenergy.com/resources/speed-to-power-data-centers-firm-nuclear.md", "title": "Speed-to-Power: Data Centers and Firm Nuclear Power", "description": "US data-center load is climbing while interconnection queues stretch. See what firm power actually requires and where advanced nuclear fits on the timeline." }, { "url": "https://rankshieldenergy.com/resources/trusting-remotely-operated-reactor-command-state/", "markdown": "https://rankshieldenergy.com/resources/trusting-remotely-operated-reactor-command-state.md", "title": "Trusting a Remotely Operated Nuclear Reactor Safely", "description": "Remote operation splits the operator from the core. Learn the two trust gaps this opens, verified commands and verified state, and how each is being addressed." }, { "url": "https://rankshieldenergy.com/resources/verify-autonomous-microreactor-operating-safely/", "markdown": "https://rankshieldenergy.com/resources/verify-autonomous-microreactor-operating-safely.md", "title": "How to Verify an Autonomous Microreactor Is Running Safely", "description": "An autonomous microreactor runs with fewer people on site. See how independent verification confirms it is operating safely, without taking a vendor's word." }, { "url": "https://rankshieldenergy.com/resources/walk-away-safety-explained/", "markdown": "https://rankshieldenergy.com/resources/walk-away-safety-explained.md", "title": "Walk-Away Safety Explained: How a Reactor Cools Itself", "description": "Walk-away safety means a reactor shuts itself down and cools itself using physics alone, with no operator, no power, and no pumps. Here is how it works." }, { "url": "https://rankshieldenergy.com/resources/what-is-a-nuclear-microreactor/", "markdown": "https://rankshieldenergy.com/resources/what-is-a-nuclear-microreactor.md", "title": "What Is a Nuclear Microreactor? A Complete 2026 Guide", "description": "A nuclear microreactor is a factory-built reactor producing roughly 1 to 20 megawatts, per DOE, small enough to ship on a truck to where power is needed." }, { "url": "https://rankshieldenergy.com/resources/where-haleu-comes-from-advanced-reactor-fuel/", "markdown": "https://rankshieldenergy.com/resources/where-haleu-comes-from-advanced-reactor-fuel.md", "title": "Where HALEU Comes From: Fuel for Advanced Reactors", "description": "HALEU is the fuel most advanced reactors need, and supply is still being stood up. Here is where it comes from and why it shapes deployment timelines." }, { "url": "https://rankshieldenergy.com/safety/", "markdown": "https://rankshieldenergy.com/safety.md", "title": "Safety, RankShield Energy HELIX Microreactor", "description": "The HELIX safety case: passive shutdown by negative temperature feedback, walk-away decay-heat removal by natural-draft air cooling and radiation with no pumps of any kind, no water and no high pressure, and a verification layer held physically outside the safety boundary that can never command it." }, { "url": "https://rankshieldenergy.com/specs/", "markdown": "https://rankshieldenergy.com/specs.md", "title": "Specifications & Drawings, RankShield Energy HELIX", "description": "HELIX design-of-record specification and dimensioned engineering drawings, module elevation and core cross-section. All figures are design targets; pre-application." }, { "url": "https://rankshieldenergy.com/technology/", "markdown": "https://rankshieldenergy.com/technology.md", "title": "Technology, RankShield Energy HELIX Microreactor", "description": "How the HELIX microreactor works: a graphite-moderated UCO-TRISO core at 19.75% HALEU, sealed sodium heat pipes with no pumps of any kind, fully-dry cooling, passive walk-away safety, and a sealed transportable module. Every subsystem chosen for physics, supply, and licensing, not novelty." }, { "url": "https://rankshieldenergy.com/testing/", "markdown": "https://rankshieldenergy.com/testing.md", "title": "Testing & Scenarios, RankShield Energy HELIX Microreactor", "description": "The HELIX validation program: continuous-energy reactor-physics screening in OpenMC, a six-family register of real-life scenarios from nominal to chaotic failure, and the destructive-boundary campaign, all honestly labeled as unqualified pre-QAPD screening rather than credited analysis." }, { "url": "https://rankshieldenergy.com/verify/", "markdown": "https://rankshieldenergy.com/verify.md", "title": "Verify this site, RankShield Energy content integrity", "description": "Recompute the SHA-256 of any page on this site in your own browser and compare it to the hash we published. Tamper-evidence you can check yourself, with its limits stated plainly." } ] }