Abstract
Radiant believes that the foundation of any town, city, village, outpost, or any gathering of people depends on the availability of power, water, and clean air. Power, water, and clean air technology can allow human civilization to spread across the cosmos. The radiant of a meteor shower is that point in the sky from which all the bright streaks of light appear to originate. The point itself is dark, but from it springs forth everything.
 
Imagine hundreds of years from now, a time by which humans have colonized many planets and even other solar systems. To an observer looking at history over that stretch of time, humans would appear to have sent bright white shocks of creativity, curiosity, and prosperity out to fill the dark universe. All coming from one pale blue dot, the earth. For civilization itself, we must be the radiant.

Kaleidos is a commercial, portable nuclear microreactor that will provide reliable and clean energy to remote communities, hospitals, military bases, and other end uses requiring a highly-reliable and long-lasting power source. Kaleidos is a high temperature gas reactor (HTGR) capable of 3.5 MW thermal and 1MW electrical power. 

Biography

Chief Nuclear Officer Rita Baranwal works at Radiant, the company pioneering the world’s first mass-produced portable nuclear microreactor. Baranwal is a former Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy and brings decades of leadership experience across the public and private sectors of the nuclear energy industry, with a distinguished track record of advancing innovation in nuclear technology.

Prior to joining Radiant, Baranwal served as Senior Vice President of the AP300 Small Modular Reactor program at Westinghouse Electric Company, leading development and licensing of one of the industry’s most promising next-generation nuclear designs. She was previously Chief Technology Officer at Westinghouse, overseeing global research and development, engineering, and advanced reactor technologies.

From 2019 to 2021, Baranwal served as Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy at the U.S. Department of Energy. In that role, she directed the department’s efforts to promote nuclear power as a key part of America’s energy future, managing a broad portfolio of research programs and public-private partnerships.  

Earlier in her career, Baranwal was the inaugural director the Gateway for Accelerated Innovation in Nuclear (GAIN) initiative at Idaho National Laboratory and held key technical leadership positions at Bechtel Bettis, Inc., supporting the U.S. Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program.

She holds a Bachelor of Science in materials science and engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Master’s and PhD in materials science and engineering from the University of Michigan.

Baranwal is a widely respected voice in the global nuclear community and a passionate advocate for deploying advanced nuclear technologies to meet the world’s growing demand for reliable energy.