Army Invests in Next-Generation Nuclear Technology
The U.S. Army will soon begin installing small nuclear reactors at bases worldwide (U.S. Army).
What’s going on: On Tuesday, the Army “announced the launch of the Janus Program, a next-generation nuclear power program that will deliver resilient, secure and assured energy to support national defense installations and critical missions.”
- The announcement comes five months after President Trump’s executive order calling for an operational nuclear reactor at a U.S. military base by Sept. 30, 2028.
How it will work: In collaboration with the Department of Defense’s Defense Innovation Unit and the Department of Energy, the Army “will develop and test the microreactors, which will be commercially owned and operated” ( Defense News).
- The operation will be modeled after the contracting mechanism used in NASA’s Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program.
Lessons learned: “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 of China,” according to the Army.