The Department of Defense is on the verge of a breakthrough with advanced nuclear energy that promises to strengthen military readiness and revitalize a globally competitive U.S. commercial nuclear industry. But for that to happen, it needs to shelve the idea of a mobile microreactor that the military can bring on overseas deployments. Instead, the Department of Defense should prioritize fixed nuclear reactors at domestic U.S. military installations that will strengthen energy reliability for on-base critical missions and the surrounding defense communities that are essential to carrying out national defense.
Not since Adm. Hyman G. Rickover ushered in the era of Navy nuclear propulsion has the U.S. military been in a position to harness nuclear power to bolster U.S. energy dominance. And a breakthrough could not come sooner, as the electrical grid serving 99 percent of U.S. military installations faces surging demand from AI data centers and semiconductor chip manufacturing. Increasingly extreme weather is also causing outages that exceed on-base backup power capability. The nature of a globally networked force where domestic military installations are increasingly tied to overseas missions — from drones to cyber operations — means that a power failure at home puts operators abroad at risk. That cannot happen.
Despite the need for more reliable electricity at U.S. military installations, the Department of Defense has focused considerable research and development on a mobile nuclear reactor. In 2019, the Strategic Capabilities Office launched the Project Pele demonstration reactor to serve the military’s operational energy needs. The idea sounds simple: use a nuclear reactor to generate electricity on the battlefield instead of hauling diesel fuel to power generators. It’s a worthy goal given that fuel lines are highly vulnerable to sabotage and attack.
Unfortunately, Project Pele is conceptually flawed as an energy solution for the modern and mobile U.S. military. Today’s servicemembers demand speed and agility — features that a mobile reactor cannot deliver. Because of the shielding required to protect people from radiation exposure, the Project Pele reactor takes three days to set up and seven days to take down. That is far too long for a forward-deployed force that may need to relocate swiftly — or is under fire — especially in a contested area. The National Academy of Sciences concluded the same in a 2021 study.
On the flip side, because of a fixation with transporting a reactor aboard a C-17 aircraft and the shielding needed to make that happen safely, the design is limited to one megawatt (it was originally proposed to be up to five megawatts). That is too small to meet the larger energy loads at overseas bases that consume a lot of power and depend on outside fuel sources that may be disrupted during a conflict. Nonetheless, an airlifted mobile reactor could still work: it just means employing multiple reactors, which adds more safety and security requirements in situations and environments that often demand simplicity. For these reasons and more, mobile microreactors seem a far distant reality.
And yet Project Pele has become synonymous with everything the Department of Defense is doing with microreactors and small modular reactors. Ask almost anyone about the military’s efforts in this space and you’re likely to get an answer mentioning Project Pele. This has only sowed confusion about what the Department of Defense needs, so much so that Congress continues to pour money into Project Pele instead of programs that have a real shot at developing advanced nuclear power as an option to supply reliable electricity to domestic military installations.
In 2020, at Congress’s direction, the Air Force began soliciting for a microreactor at Eielson Air Force Base in Alaska (it announced an intent to award a contract in 2023 but it remains under protest). The Army, in 2024, launched its Advanced Nuclear Power for Installations program in partnership with the Defense Innovation Unit and the Air Force to explore using microreactors ranging from 3 to 10 megawatts to generate power for critical missions. Those missions usually represent a small portion of the total energy at an installation, but they can be isolated from the commercial electricity system with an on-base microgrid. That program recently announced eight companies that are eligible for demonstration contracts, a significant milestone. In contrast, the Navy announced its own effort in 2024 to look at small modular reactors for installation readiness. These reactors can range up to 300 megawatts and may deliver enough electricity for a base and the surrounding community, potentially helping to provide direct energy relief to the commercial grid.
These installation-focused efforts align with the Trump administration’s charge to “unleash American energy.” On Jan. 20, 2025, President Trump issued an executive order that called on all federal agencies to quickly remove any hurdles to tapping domestic energy, “with particular attention to … nuclear energy resources.” Furthermore, the Trump administration is eyeing military installations to site energy-intensive commercial data centers and rare earth mineral refineries, in part to expedite the federal permitting process and get these critical facilities online quickly. Advanced nuclear power on military installations is an ideal candidate to ensure sufficient electricity for these commercial applications since they don’t shed load — they are either on or off, like nuclear power.
Fortunately, the Department of Defense is now coordinating these installation efforts and catalyzing momentum. That coordination is vital to help the services capitalize on earlier achievements and work together to demonstrate the safety and performance of advanced reactors. It also gives the Department of Defense a chance to leverage recent bipartisan reforms to expedite the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s licensing process for advanced reactors and influence the domestic production of high-assay low-enriched uranium to fuel these reactors. But unlike Project Pele, these initiatives lack dedicated funding that is desperately needed for them to succeed.
As the Trump administration works with Congress to identify efficiencies at the Department of Defense, realigning funds from Project Pele to the services’ installation nuclear power efforts would be a prudent choice. Project Pele has probably gone as far as physics will allow it to go. It has achieved remarkable technological milestones, to be sure, and BWX Technologies, the commercial developer, will be able to leverage lessons for its civilian microreactor. But it is inconceivable, without an extraordinary scientific breakthrough, that the program will achieve its goal of a deployable microreactor that meets the military’s requirements for rapid movement to a forward location.
That doesn’t mean Project Pele has failed — quite the opposite. The more than half a billion dollars that Congress has appropriated for it has propelled America’s next-generation nuclear capabilities and forged close collaboration between the Department of Defense, the Department of Energy and its national labs, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that is critical to realizing this nuclear moment.
Shifting funds to the services’ nuclear power installation efforts now will help the Department of Defense continue its competitive process as it selects from multiple designs and starts prototyping a handful of reactors, with a goal of establishing an orderbook of reactors that meet America’s high standard for safety, security, and nonproliferation from which the services can select in the future. Getting there requires the Department of Defense to put loads of money up front to de-risk the technological development. That will buy down the long-term costs of a reactor while also helping to kickstart an advanced U.S. nuclear power industry. But it’s up to the Trump administration and Congress: Unless they act, the Department of Defense’s breakthrough nuclear moment may vanish before it really happens.
Will Rogers served as a senior advisor to the U.S. Army from 2022 to 2025. He is currently a principal at Converge Strategies, a consulting firm specializing in energy, resilience, and national security, and an adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security.
Image: Midjourney.
Jesus Christ is King
Comments are closed.