Nuclear Challenge
Design a reactor. Build a generation.
A university flagship program, the first of its kind in the world. Four competing student teams at BGU each design a 60 MWe small modular reactor, check each other's work and defend their design before a panel of experts. In May 2029, BGU's 60th anniversary, the university selects its best concept, BG-SMR-60: an SMR engineering design, an academic platform that improves year after year, and perhaps, one day, is built.
Why now
Energy security and independence are national security, AI runs on reliable power around the clock, and cutting emissions needs clean power at scale. Nuclear energy answers all three, and the world has noticed:
- 60+ reactors under construction worldwide
- ~30 newcomer nuclear countries
- 4x: the US target of 400 GWe of nuclear by 2050
- 6 new US reactors reached first criticality in 2026
Everywhere on earth, the nuclear renaissance is short of one thing, more than uranium, and more than money: people. Israel, an energy island running 72 percent on a depleting supply of natural gas, has no nuclear energy ecosystem yet, and only one place that trains nuclear engineers: BGU.
Four teams, four leading nuclear technologies
60 MWe each, competing and cross-checking.
OR, light
Integral pressurized water reactor. The most proven reactor technology, in one compact capsule.
BARAK, lightning
Liquid metal cooled fast reactor. Sodium or lead, near atmospheric pressure, with thorium breeding.
LAHAT, glow
Molten salt reactor. Fuel dissolved in hot salt, at low pressure, fast or thermal spectrum, thorium breeding.
NITZOTZ, spark
Helium cooled graphite reactor. TRISO fuel, graphite blocks or pebbles, cooled by helium, portable.
The road to May 2029
- October 2026: launch and founding year
- June 2027: readiness review
- Autumn 2027: draft day and the Nuclear Academy
- Autumn 2028: designs presented and reviewed in public
- May 2029: selection day, BG-SMR-60
The nucleus is the smallest part of matter, yet it holds nearly all the energy. The Nuclear Challenge aims to create the nucleus of Israel's nuclear energy ecosystem.
What the challenge produces
- About 40 highly qualified engineering and science graduates in all fields of nuclear energy, plus partner personnel who become experts alongside them
- Four SMR conceptual designs and one reference concept
- A shared simulation and analysis environment, curricula and tools that outlive the challenge
- An open panel of experts from BGU, industry, government and academia
How to take part
The challenge doesn't set Israel's nuclear policy. It builds people and an ecosystem so decision-makers choose wisely.
- Investors and philanthropists: fund fellowships, the academy, the analysis environment or the expert panel, and take a seat at the table as the ecosystem forms.
- Companies: mentor a team, bring real problems, share tools and data, and send your own people to train alongside the students.
- Regulators and government: set the questions that matter, sit on the expert panel, and draw on what the challenge learns about Israel's competencies.
- Public: follow the teams, and come to the public presentations in autumn 2028 and to selection day in May 2029.
Contact KINS&E, or write to Prof. Erez Gilad, Chair, Unit of Nuclear Engineering, and Director, Klein Institute for Nuclear Science and Engineering: gilade@bgu.ac.il, +972-8-647-2488.
Updates
- 21 October 2026: The Nuclear Challenge was launched at the KINS&E inaugural event, during the BGU Board of Governors meeting.
Prof. Erez Gilad with members of the BGU Board of Governors at the launch of the Nuclear Challenge.
Download
One-page overview (PDF, English) | סקירה בעמוד אחד (PDF, עברית)
