Overview
- The Army awarded $2.2 billion in contracts on Thursday to five companies, including Antares Nuclear, Radiant Industries, Westinghouse and General Atomics, to build and operate small modular reactors at five U.S. military bases.
- Officials say the program responds to a 'potentially vulnerable' domestic grid and the risk that fuel deliveries such as diesel could fail during a crisis, leaving critical base systems without power.
- Small modular reactors (SMRs) are compact reactors generally up to about 300 megawatts electric and have much smaller footprints than conventional plants, but no SMRs are yet in commercial operation in the U.S.
- The Army plans to use its own certification process and coordinate regulatory steps with the Department of Energy and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission so military approval can help clear a path toward civilian NRC licensing.
- If the program advances, it could speed SMR testing and create markets beyond the military by letting companies sell reactors to industry or towns, while immediately changing how bases manage fuel logistics and outage risk.