Army awards up to $2.2 billion for nuclear microreactors at five bases

"These are not meant to be Army-specific designs."

attribution · Jeff Waksman

Waksman said these reactors will shut down safely in case of a failure, they're small and the Army wouldn't add them to installations without being certain they are safe.

attribution · Jeff Waksman

He said the Army is working on a deal with the Energy Department to remove radioactive waste, and there won't be any long-term storage on these installations.

attribution · Jeff Waksman

Officials hope to push nuclear development forward so that advanced reactor designs move beyond experiments and prototypes to provide power for years to come.

attribution · officials

"That is the transition that we are trying to effect here," he said on a call with reporters Wednesday.

attribution · Jeff Waksman

Waksman said these reactors will shut down safely in case of a failure, they're small and the Army wouldn't add them to installations without being certain they are safe.

attribution · Jeff Waksman

Antares and Radiant are planning to deliver their reactors in three-packs, Waksman said.

attribution · Jeff Waksman

The critical missions Fort Drum supports require secure power generation, the New York Democrat said.

attribution · Chuck Schumer

General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems said its reactor is designed to operate in remote, off-grid and extreme environments for 40 years.

attribution · General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems

A reactor at Fort Belvoir in Virginia, completed in 1957, was the first nuclear power reactor to provide electricity to a commercial power grid in the United States for an extended period, according to the US Army Corps of Engineers.

attribution · US Army Corps of Engineers

It said it will draw on more than 70 years of nuclear expertise to provide safe, dependable and independent power for the military.

attribution · General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems

"Since launching the Janus Program, our mandate from President Trump and Secretary Hegseth has been clear: secure the power our warfighters need to train, deploy and win," said Dan Driscoll, Secretary of the Army.

attribution · Dan Driscoll

"We are seeking not just reactors capable of turning on for a brief demonstration, but rather systems able to deliver power with high-capacity factors for years of operation.

attribution · Jeff Waksman

The Janus Program will be a complete success when and only when we have assisted multiple nuclear companies in developing truly reliable and affordable nuclear microreactors which they can sell to other buyers beyond just the military."

attribution · Jeff Waksman

"When DOE created an authorization pathway for the demonstration of advanced reactor designs, we quickly began to realize how valuable these technologies could be for fortifying our national defense infrastructure," said Assistant Secretary of Nuclear Energy Ted Garrish.

attribution · Ted Garrish

"We are honored to work in lockstep with the Army to leverage nuclear energy innovation in support of our country's military operations at home and abroad."

attribution · Ted Garrish

"Our selected industry awardees represent the most viable technologies to achieve this capability, setting conditions for both installation energy resilience and operational energy solutions."

attribution · Jason Craft

"We need more power. We need it delivered faster and cheaper, and we need it to be more reliable," said Owen West, director, DIU.

attribution · Owen West

"The War Department is acting swiftly to implement President Trump's Executive Order, Deploying Advanced Nuclear Reactor Technologies for National Security, to deploy a nuclear reactor on a military installation by September 2028.

attribution · Emil Michael

"With Janus, DIU is assisting the Army's micro reactor build — speeding military energy production to protect the nation."

attribution · Owen West

"The War Department is acting swiftly to implement President Trump's Executive Order, Deploying Advanced Nuclear Reactor Technologies for National Security, to deploy a nuclear reactor on a military installation by September 2028.

attribution · Emil Michael

We are unleashing America's domestic nuclear industrial base to ensure a more resilient and secure energy supply for the joint force."

attribution · Emil Michael

"The Army's Janus Program has my full support," said Emil Michael, the War Department's Chief Technology Officer.

attribution · Emil Michael

Radiant's Chief Commercial Officer Mike Starrett told Reuters in an interview that the Janus award is key to the company scaling up its business to eventually meet the needs of commercial customers like data centers in about 2030.

attribution · Mike Starrett

Waksman said nobody thinks that microreactors will be lower in cost than conventional plants. "What we are trying to do here with Janus... is to flesh out how we can get those prices down," Waksman said.

attribution · Jeff Waksman

The military currently pays about 40 cents a kilowatt-hour to power Arctic installations, a cost it hopes to cut, Waksman said.

attribution · Jeff Waksman

Waksman said nobody thinks that microreactors will be lower in cost than conventional plants. "What we are trying to do here with Janus... is to flesh out how we can get those prices down," Waksman said.

attribution · Jeff Waksman

Starrett said that because Radiant's containerized reactors can be brought to the customer, eliminating energy transmission fees, their delivered cost will be between 20 and 30 cents per kilowatt-hour.

attribution · Mike Starrett

"Unlike in prior conflicts, we now know that our domestic electric grid is potentially at risk in a conflict. We also know that we will not necessarily be able to move fossil fuels easily wherever we need them to go," Jeff Waksman — the principal deputy assistant secretary of the Army for installations, energy and environment — told reporters today while announcing the awards for the Janus program, the service's effort to field nuclear microreactors on US military installations.

attribution · Jeff Waksman

"These contractual milestones are very flexible," Waksman said. "So if a company is not performing, if they are just disappointing, not delivering what we're expecting, we can pull future milestones. There are no termination fees."

attribution · Jeff Waksman

"These companies are still working to raise money off of this announcement. … We are expecting that the majority of the money coming into these reactor programs will be private capital, not government," Waksman told reporters.

attribution · Jeff Waksman

"We don't expect all five of these companies are going to turn on a reactor in 2028. In fact, they definitely will not," he later added. "But we do believe we have a very practical pathway to delivering at least one of these reactors on/by September 30, 2028."

attribution · Jeff Waksman

For example, Radiant's Chief Nuclear Officer Rita Baranwal told Breaking Defense that the company's design uses fuel made to its specifications for its reactor.

The Department of Energy, she explained, provided Radiant with 19.75 percent high-assay, low-enriched uranium (HALEU).

attribution · Rita Baranwal

"The most likely short-term solution is going to be gas. That's just the reality situation," Waksman told reporters at the time.

"Gas is very cheap and plentiful, but this is part of what we have to hash out with TVA. "There are concerns about just how much gas supply there is in local areas, so we have to work things like that out," he added. "We have to figure out the pipeline situation and figure out all the economics of it. But I would say that that's probably the most likely solution."

attribution · Jeff Waksman

"Everything that we do, from communications to radar, just requires constant energy," Jeff Waksman, principal deputy assistant secretary of the Army for installations, energy and environment, told reporters Wednesday. "As we start to think about where things are going in the future with drones, with energy weapons, there's just more and more demand for electricity."

attribution · Jeff Waksman

"This is already very difficult," he said. "There's a reason no one has actually built a fully operational commercial nuclear microreactor before."

attribution · Jeff Waksman

But Waksman acknowledged that number is still murky. "The reality is, nobody knows what these microreactors are going to cost," he said. "We don't ever expect that microreactors are going to be quite as cheap as big reactors. … They don't need to be at natural gas prices for these to have a lot of value to the Army."

attribution · Jeff Waksman

General Atomics, meanwhile, said it would use the contract at Fort Hood to implement a microreactor design that's capable of scaling from 5 megawatts to 20 megawatts.

attribution · General Atomics

"Operating on military installations first gives us the reliability track record to unlock commercial deployments," Radiant's Chief Commercial Officer Mike Starrett said in a release. "The resulting, much larger commercial volume drives down costs, letting the government buy at scale for less."

attribution · Mike Starrett

"Our experience designing and deploying 68 reactors worldwide and supporting reactor technologies throughout their lifecycles positions us to deliver assured energy solutions that enhance operational resilience and strengthen mission readiness," Scott Forney, the company's president said in a statement.

attribution · Scott Forney

The project could also spur more growth in nuclear engineering as a technical field in the Army, Waksman said. "West Point is very excited about trying to get more cadets into nuclear engineering, and I think we are going to see that," he said. "This is part of the general push that the Army has had to become more technically forward, be more of a technology leader."

attribution · Jeff Waksman

The Janus effort has been driven by nuclear energy-related executive orders issued by President Donald Trump, according to the Army, which launched the program last year. The service was designated as the executive agent for the Pentagon's installation and operational nuclear energy efforts and was tasked with setting up a program of record, Waksman explained.

attribution · Jeff Waksman

"However, once we selected the five companies and we had to choose the opening site for those five companies, it then became a matching process between companies and sites. … So, for instance, a company might have a good relationship with a utility, or a utility may not want to work with a certain company," he added. "We also have to worry about the specific power needs of that installation. So, for instance, a 1-megawatt reactor versus a 20-megawatt reactor — you have to figure out which sites are going to have need for that power and can use that power for operational purposes. And then also … for instance, some of these companies can largely just put a reactor on the surface, some need to dig down a little bit underground. And of the nine sites, some are conducive to digging, and some are not, based on either seismic issues, soil issues, bedrock depth, and things like that."

attribution · Jeff Waksman

Waksman noted that none of the reactors will be using highly enriched uranium or "weapons-grade" uranium.

"It means that we don't have to treat these things the way … a nuclear weapon or a naval reactor needs to be treated. However, you know, one of the benefits of being on an Army installation is that we will be leveraging the Army security that already exists on these Army installations. So obviously, physical security is part of our requirements. We have … additional security requirements for important infrastructure on Army installations that go beyond what you will often see in the private sector. So that is incorporated here," he said.

attribution · Jeff Waksman

"The Army has the responsibility for the entire Pentagon to negotiate that nuclear waste deal with the Department of Energy. So we are working on that. We don't have that fully signed and agreed to yet, but the intent is to have a deal with the Department of Energy where the waste will go to a DOE site of some sort, and there'd be money transacted, and then DOE would take title to that waste. So we are not going to stand up an Army-licensed nuclear waste facility. That would not be beneficial or practical," he added.

attribution · Jeff Waksman

The microreactors will have built-in safety features, Waksman noted. "It's important to remember that the commercial nuclear reactors that exist in the United States are all quite old designs," he said. "But these reactors, this next generation of reactors … are what's called inherently safe. That means that the physics of the core itself will shut these reactors down safely. They do not rely on any outside external power or anything else to allow them to shut down safely. If there is some sort of problem, the reactors will trip and they will turn themselves off, and the natural air circulation that is flowing over them will be sufficient to keep them from having any sort of dangerous failure."

attribution · Jeff Waksman

"The Army has the responsibility for the entire Pentagon to negotiate that nuclear waste deal with the Department of Energy. So we are working on that. We don't have that fully signed and agreed to yet, but the intent is to have a deal with the Department of Energy where the waste will go to a DOE site of some sort, and there'd be money transacted, and then DOE would take title to that waste. So we are not going to stand up an Army-licensed nuclear waste facility. That would not be beneficial or practical," he added.

attribution · Jeff Waksman

"These are going to be commercially owned and operated. So, all the people pressing buttons, all the people doing maintenance, will all be commercial vendors, part of the contractor team. There will not be Army green suiters operating these reactors. The Army will be providing technical support along the development pathway, and the Army will be performing the oversight. So the Army reactor regulatory office is currently overseen by an Army lieutenant colonel. So the Army team is going to be very much involved in the program, but they will not operate these reactors. We want this to be a commercial operation," Waksman told DefenseScoop during the media roundtable.

attribution · Jeff Waksman

The presence of the reactors shouldn't cause "significant change" to how Army personnel are living and working on the bases, Waksman said, asserting that soldiers won't be expected to provide support in case of an emergency.

attribution · Jeff Waksman