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The push for a new nuclear age to power the AI boom with next-generation reactors remains feasible, but it\u2019s the U.S. military and NASA that are stepping in to expedite the development of even smaller nuclear\u2014so-called microreactors\u2014to power remote bases, revolutionize combat, and fuel deep-space exploration.<\/p>\n
As the data center boom slows a bit and the nuclear hype wanes\u2014stock valuations are down and planned IPOs are canceled\u2014the federal government is stepping up funding to support the implementation of microreactors on domestic military bases by 2028. The tentative plans are to eventually extend their reach to remote bases in harsh weather conditions\u2014potentially near combat zones\u2014and eventually to lunar bases and the outer reaches of the solar system.<\/p>\n
In June, nuclear startup Antares successfully flipped the switch on its Mark-0 microreactor, first to the finish line in the Trump administration\u2019s pilot program race for the next generation of reactors to achieve criticality.<\/p>\n
Next, Antares aims to install its 1-megwatt R1 reactor at the U.S. Army\u2019s Fort Bragg in North Carolina by September 2028. Even more ambitious, founder and CEO Jordan Bramble aims to install an R1-S (the S is for \u201cspace\u201d) on the moon as soon as 2030. In September, the Department of Defense awarded Antares $161 million to develop an R1-S reactor integrated with spacecraft for flight certification. Solar power and radioisotopes are seen as the shorter-term power solution on the moon with nuclear microreactors considered the permanent fix.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll need fission power on the dark side of the moon,\u201d Bramble told Fortune. \u201cFission is going to be our best path to doing very high-powered things in orbit. If we\u2019re going to send landers to Europa and Enceladus and Triton (moons of Jupiter, Saturn, and Neptune) and try to find microbial life under the ice, we\u2019re probably going to need fission power to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
The idea is to provide nimble and reliable baseload power that\u2019s clean, meltdown-proof, and relatively agile for limited power uses. Of course, the technology still needs to be proven in the field commercially and not just in testing labs. Historically, the only comparable uses are within the Navy\u2014for decades\u2014for nuclear-powered submarines and aircraft carriers to avoid constant refueling. \u201cWe\u2019ve always believed since the beginning the [Department of Defense] would be the first adopter of advanced nuclear power,\u201d Bramble said. \u201cThat\u2019s obvious at this point.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the near term, the U.S. Army is working with Antares, Radiant, General Atomics, and more to install microreactors on its biggest Lower 48 bases to prove their reliability and to protect critical defense infrastructure from any grid failures. This is Project Janus, which announced $2.2 billion in awards in August.<\/p>\n
The biggest recipient of the Janus awards is microreactor startup Radiant, which specializes in a transportable, 1-megawatt reactor\u2014enough to power about 750 homes\u2014that only takes up the space of \u201cthree parking spaces.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Radiant has designs for its 1-megawatt Kaleidos system extending far beyond the Lower 48 and its first projects on Fort Benningin Georgia and Buckley Space Force Base in Colorado, said chief operating officer and president Tori Shivanandan.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe U.S. has struggled, and not just in major conflicts, in supporting troop deployments internationally,\u201d Shivanandan told Fortune. \u201cIf you\u2019re moving your troops around and you want defense systems to protect those troops as they\u2019re deployed overseas, you also need to make sure that you have the power available to defend your troops.\u201d<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s war in Iran has shown that U.S. military bases throughout the Middle East\u2014and beyond\u2014are vulnerable to drone attacks. Fuel convoys are historically exposed as well, she said. Smaller, more mobile bases that don\u2019t require so much diesel refueling are the potential answer, she added.<\/p>\n
\u201cA diesel generator needs to be refueled every one to two days. In previous conflicts in the Middle East, those were our largest targets for our adversaries because fuel convoys create repeatable paths,\u201d Shivanandan said. \u201cOur unit doesn\u2019t need to be refueled for three years.\u201d<\/p>\n
Radiant transports its 1-megawatt, Kaleidos nuclear microreactor from California to the Idaho National Laboratory for testing.
\nPhoto credit: Radiant<\/p>\n
The Army view<\/p>\n
Jeff Waksman, the Army\u2019s top energy official, likes to recite the popular military saying, \u201cAmateurs talk tactics, professionals talk logistics.\u201d<\/p>\n
Waksman, a nuclear physicist by training, is leading Project Janus as well as the earlier Project Pele for a transportable nuclear reactor. \u201cAs we look to the future of warfare, it is becoming increasingly electrical,\u201d he told Fortune, referencing drone warfare and much more.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a lot of applications where being able to have a lot of power, not needing to refuel for a long period of time, and being able to do that in a fairly transportable way could be absolutely game changing,\u201d he said, noting that Janus is the Roman god of new beginnings and transitions. \u201cSo, we are trying to lead the nation on these microreactors.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Army\u2019s goal is to speed up microreactors into becoming commercially successful and, therefore, more economic and useful to the military. After all, no company wants to buy the first few that are economically prohibitive, so the Army is jumping in financially and then helping the economies of scale take over. Project Janus plans to fund 20 microreactors for Lower 48 bases through the early 2030s.<\/p>\n
Afterwards, he said, \u201cWe are certainly thinking about what it would take to move reactors into more austere locations,\u201d Waksman said, citing tactically strategic positions in the Arctic or Pacific islands to power missile-defense systems and more. But he\u2019s not ready to push for microreactors near combat\u2014yet. \u201cWe don\u2019t have any plans at this time to take these into conflict zones. We want to be clear about that.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can see into the future potential game-changing capabilities,\u201d he said. \u201cBut we need to see that this works safely and affordably within the Lower 48 states first.\u201d And he cautioned against the Army\u2014or the public\u2014getting ahead of itself. \u201cIt\u2019s one thing to turn a reactor on for five minutes at low power. It\u2019s another thing to turn a reactor to full power, which nobody has done with these microreactors.\u201d<\/p>\n
What\u2019s also clear is the military sees the potential of nuclear as the most reliable and steady power source for the future. The initial goal is not to power entire bases, but to focus instead on the critical operations that must stay online during grid outages, especially in this age of AI and rising cybersecurity threats. The microreactors would serve as permanent power sources, and not just backup generation.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost of the electricity is not what we would necessarily consider critical, operationally critical. If people can\u2019t get lunch, that\u2019s a problem, but that\u2019s not national security critical,\u201d Waksman said. \u201cWe\u2019re focused on what the critical operations are on those installations.\u201d<\/p>\n
Competing approaches<\/p>\n
While many of the next-gen nuclear leaders are startups, 71-year-old General Atomics also aims to trailblaze with a souped-up, commercial version of its training and research TRIGA reactor, which was initially developed in the late 1950s.<\/p>\n
General Atomics\u2019 GA-TES (Tactical Energy System) reactor, which would scale from 5 to 20 megawatts as needed, is first slated for at Fort Hood in Texas.<\/p>\n
Christina Back, GA\u2019s vice president for nuclear technologies and materials, essentially agrees with Antares\u2019 Bramble that strong commercial demand for nuclear will be at the two ends of the spectrum: large, next-gen reactors, such as the Westinghouse, 1.1-gigawatt AP1000, and microreactors. The midsized, small modular reactors (SMRs) in development may struggle to find enough takers.<\/p>\n
The GA-TES reactor is air-cooled, so it doesn\u2019t even need to be positioned near water, such as with traditional light-water nuclear power plants.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s good for places that are remote. It costs a lot of money to move the fuel up there. You don\u2019t want to have to keep carting up coal or natural gas or whatever,\u201d Back said, citing everywhere from Guam to Alaska and noting that the General Atomics system only needs to be refueled every four to six years.<\/p>\n
In competition with each other, the microreactor companies aren\u2019t afraid to criticize each other, even if they don\u2019t cite them by name. Back said General Atomics didn\u2019t need to bother competing in Trump\u2019s criticality race because the TRIGA test reactors are proven for nearly 70 years.<\/p>\n
Back also said a 1-megawatt reactor seems pointless because the Army needs more power for a base and the commercial demand is limited. Taking a microreactor into a combat zone is impractical because of the many days needed to set it up and break it down.<\/p>\n
General Atomics is well positioned and doesn\u2019t need to hype itself, she said. \u201cAs a company, we don\u2019t need to worry about the next Series A startup money, so we are very careful about what we say.\u201d<\/p>\n
Radiant and others would of course disagree. After all, Radiant\u2019s Kaleidos is focused on being the most transportable, while most microreactor systems are designed to stay in one place for prolonged periods of time\u2014although they can be mobile. Shivanandan said she\u2019s most \u201cconfused\u201d by the microreactor companies that require digging holes at least 50 feet in the ground.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce you dig a hole in the ground and put a reactor in there, that is a nuclear site forever,\u201d Shivanandan said. \u201cYou\u2019ve limited the customer for those in-ground systems mostly to utilities. No [other] customer wants to be a nuclear cipher forever because business is changing incredibly quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n
What the rivals do agree on though is they\u2019re excited about the Trump\u2019s administration\u2019s efforts to expedite permitting for nuclear projects, as well as the growing bipartisan support within Congress as the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan moves away from the forefront of people\u2019s minds.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe tend to be very conservative because the nuclear industry can\u2019t afford an accident,\u201d Back said, before adding another dig. \u201cWe\u2019re [taking] a little bit longer than the 1-megawatt startups hurrying to show it works, because we\u2019re building something to last.\u201d<\/p>\n
#U.S #military #NASA #power #problems #Nuclear #microreactors #solve<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The push for a new nuclear age to power the AI boom with next-generation reactors…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[245],"tags":[5270,518,20223,859,2153,4736,668,5393,2339,722],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18985"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18985"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18985\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}