Service wants to partner with industry to provide power for AI and new-age weaponry
The US army has selected nine sites for the potential deployment of microreactor power plants as it looks to the technology for increased and more resilient power production on its bases.
The locations that could house microreactors by 2030 as part of the army’s next-generation reactor Janus Program are: Fort Benning, Georgia; Fort Bragg, North Carolina; Fort Campbell, Kentucky; Fort Drum, New York; Fort Hood, Texas; Fort Wainwright, Alaska; Holston Army Ammunition Plant in Tennessee; Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington; and Redstone Arsenal in Alabama.
Army secretary Dan Driscoll announced the Janus Program last month, pledging to partner with commercial industry to place the small nuclear power reactors on some of the army’s posts which will require more power access in the decades to come as the service increases its use of artificial intelligence capabilities and new-age weaponry.
The nine sites were chosen after an evaluation of “mission critical installations, energy requirements and resiliency gaps, power infrastructure, environmental and technical considerations,” the army said in a statement.
Officials said it was possible that not all the named installations would receive microreactors in the coming years, but the army envisions placing them at many more installations in the coming decades.
“These early site selections align with the Department of War’s goal of accelerating the pace of deploying onsite nuclear generation at our installations,” Jordan Gillis, the army’s assistant secretary for installations, energy and environment, said in a prepared statement.
“Through the use of the army’s unique nuclear regulatory authorities, we are deploying a resilient, secure and reliable energy supply for critical defence operations and in support of the most lethal land-based fighting force in the world.”
Army officials said last month the Janus Program would be a public-private programme in which commercial companies own and operate nuclear microreactors on Army installations and under the service’s oversight.
The Janus Program will build on lessons learned from Project Pele, a transportable nuclear reactor which is the first electricity-producing Generation IV nuclear reactor to begin construction anywhere in the world outside China.
Earlier this year work began to fabricate the reactor core for the Pele demonstration microreactor being built for the US Department of Defense.
Pele is a 1.5-MW gas-cooled demonstration microreactor that is expected to begin producing electricity in 2028.
Microreactors are defined by the International Atomic Energy Agency as compact, factory-fabricated nuclear reactors that can produce up to 20 MW of power. They are designed to be easily transported by truck, ship, or rail to provide reliable, non-carbon-emitting power to remote communities, military bases, industrial sites, or as a backup power source, often operating independently of the traditional power grid.
