They already completed the equivalent thermal power tests last year[0], and you most certainly don't need to do electrical tests at the Nevada Nuclear Test Site

They already completed the equivalent thermal power tests last year[0], and you most certainly don't need to do electrical tests at the Nevada Nuclear Test Site. How much progress they've actually made at this point is not clear from the article, but slides from a presentation they posted yesterday detail what they plan to test[1]/maybe already tested. They need to test the individual reactor components to measure reactivity, then they need to put the power generator on and see what happens when it's just critical, but not producing any heat, then they bring thermal power up to 4 kilowatts, then they do a full power test. All of these tests involve fissile materials, so to quote Red Alert, "Gentlemen, it's a nuclear device." [0]https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/20170007986.pdf https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/201700... [1]https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/atoms/files/kilopower-media-event-charts-final-011618.pdf https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/atoms/files/kilopow...