A longer version of this article was published by The Center for the National Interest, and it can be found here.
Artificial intelligence (AI) data centers, the anticipated driving force behind America’s spiking energy demand, seem to be faltering, and with that trend may plummet the hopes that a major expansion of commercial nuclear energy will power the future. But part of that market, the microreactor sector, could find an unlikely savior in the Department of Defense (DOD).
President Donald Trump’s May 2024 nuclear energy executive orders set a deadline of September 30, 2028, for the operation of a small domestic military reactor. According to the Army’s head of reactor projects, Jeff Waksman, that service has “set aside more than $2 billion over the next five years to develop and build first-of-a-kind reactors.” And its projects are designed to “help commercial vendors develop mass-producible, commercially ready reactors that can be sold on the open market.”
Project PELE: The Pentagon's Portable Nuclear Microreactor
Project Pele was the first DOD initiative. The goal of the program is to design, build, and demonstrate a prototype of a portable 1.5-megawatt electric (MWe) microreactor weighing less than 40 tons and utilizing tri-structural isotropic (TRISO) fuel for deployment at remote military installations. It must be designed to fit into shipping containers that can be carried on trucks and C-17 cargo planes.
BWXT won the contract for its high-temperature gas-cooled reactor and broke ground at Idaho National Laboratory (INL) in September 2024. The initial High-Assay Low-Enriched Uranium (HALEU) fuel load arrived at INL in December 2025, and testing is scheduled to begin in 2027.
Janus Program: Microreactors for Army Bases
The Janus Program is the most recent military microreactor program, launched in May 2025. Its goal differs from Project PELE, as it aims to deploy commercially owned and operated microreactors with 1-20 MWe of power for use on domestic military installations.
So far, a solicitation for advanced reactor technologies has been issued, but no vendors have been chosen. In November 2025, the Army identified nine sites for potential deployment: Fort Benning, Georgia; Fort Bragg, North Carolina; Fort Campbell, Kentucky; Fort Drum, New York; Fort Hood, Texas; Fort Wainwright, Arkansas; Holston Army Ammunition Plant, Tennessee; Joint-Base Lewis McChord, Washington; and Redstone Arsenal, Alabama.
The Army has stated that the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Reactor Pilot Program (RPP) “offers foundational support to the Army’s Janus Program.” The RPP is supporting 11 reactor designs, and several of these, Antares, Oklo, and Radiant, have been identified as potential military-use reactors. The Army’s Waksman has stated that the Janus Program is looking to pair “specific reactor designs to specific US Army installations,” indicating that more than one reactor design will be pursued.
Air Force Microreactor Pilot Program: Nuclear Energy for Air and Space Bases
The Air Force Microreactor Pilot Program has similarities to the Janus Project. It is designed to develop a commercial microreactor of up to 5 MWe power that can be licensed by the NRC and deliver electricity and thermal energy to an Air Force or Space Force installation.
It is being administered in partnership with the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) Office of Energy, which is tasked with executing a 30-year power purchase agreement with a reactor vendor that will “construct, own, operate, maintain, and decommission” the reactor. The Air Force has chosen Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska, as the initial location for the pilot project, with Joint Base San Antonio, Texas, as a potential additional location. Last June, the Air Force issued a Notice of Intent to Award (NOITA) the project contract to Oklo for its liquid-metal cooled fast reactor.
Advanced Nuclear Power for Military Installations
The Advanced Nuclear Power for Installations (ANPI) program was launched in 2024. Its goal is to deploy advanced nuclear power to DOD installations with a power range of 3-10 MWe. The goals of ANPI and the Microreactor Pilot Program are similar, but the approaches differ.
ANPI is using an Other Transactional Authority (OTA) approach, which allows it to work with multiple vendors across different phases of the project. ANPI has selected three installations as potential microreactor sites and in April Joint Base San Antonio was paired with Antares Nuclear’s R1 microreactor, Buckley Space Force Base with Radiant Industries Kaleidos reactor, and Malmstrom Air Force Base with Westinghouse’s eVinci microreactor. The power output for these reactors ranges from 1-5 Mwe.
Ken Luongo, President, Partnership for Global Security
