Fort Bragg among five US military sites selected to host nuclear microreactor

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. (WNCN) — Fort Bragg, the massive U.S. Army base near Fayetteville, was chosen this week as one of five U.S. military sites for nuclear microreactors in the Janus Program, touted as a reliable energy source off the commercial electric grid, base officials said Thursday.

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In partnership with the Department of War Innovation Unit, the U.S. Army awarded up to a combined $2.2 billion to five companies to own, construct, and operate nuclear microreactors on continental U.S. military installations.

Fort Bragg, which spans 160,700 acres or 251 square miles, is located primarily in Cumberland County, hosting about 50,000 service members. Fort Bragg is the home to the 82nd Airborne Division and the U.S. Army Special Operations Command, which oversees elite units like the Green Berets, Delta Force, and Rangers.

Antares Nuclear was chosen as the vendor for the units at Fort Bragg, which also has areas in Hoke, Harnett and Moore counties.

The other military installations and vendors are: BWXT at Fort Campbell in Kentucky; General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems at Fort Hood in Texas; Radiant Industries at Fort Benning in Georgia; and Westinghouse Government Services at Fort Drum in New York.

The Army expects that more than 20 nuclear microreactors will be built and operated.

The announcement comes as the Trump administration pushes hard to develop the next generation of nuclear power, including billions in loans for large nuclear reactors to meet skyrocketing power demand from data centers and a pilot program to boost advanced reactor designs and projects for military and civilian use. No nuclear microreactors are supplying power to the commercial electric grid in the United States today.

To earn the full $2.2 billion in the project, companies will need to meet set milestones along the way for their performance.

Army and industry officials say microreactors offer a resilient power source for critical infrastructure at military installations in case the grid fails. Reactors can run for years without refueling.

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Army Secretary Dan Driscoll said the awards will accelerate the military’s ability “to deliver safe, reliable baseload power directly to our installations. We are building the energy resilience necessary to project combat power globally, without relying on potentially vulnerable external grids,” he said.

The grants are part of the Army’s “Janus Program” launched last year to deliver next-generation nuclear energy. Officials hope to push nuclear development forward so that advanced reactor designs move beyond experiments and prototypes to provide power for years to come. This will be the “spear tip,” said Jeff Waksman, principal deputy assistant secretary of the Army for installations, energy and environment.

“That is the transition that we are trying to effect here,” he said on a call with reporters Wednesday. “These are not meant to be Army-specific designs.”

Critics of building more nuclear reactors say they’re too expensive and riskier than other energy sources. The Army program is using the military’s “deep pockets to provide a hidden subsidy” to nuclear companies that can’t find private-sector customers for their hypothetical and uneconomical reactors, said Alan J. Kuperman, associate professor at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin and coordinator of the Nuclear Proliferation Prevention Project.

The reactors will be licensed by the Army, rather than the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which licenses commercial nuclear reactors. Kuperman said it’s “a dangerous scam on many levels.”

Waksman said these reactors will shut down safely in case of a failure, they’re small and the Army wouldn’t add them to installations without being certain they are safe. He said the Army is working on a deal with the Energy Department to remove radioactive waste, and there won’t be any long-term storage on these installations.

The Army is working to align its regulatory processes as much as possible, Waksman said, so that companies won’t need major changes to their designs to be later licensed by the NRC. Along with federal funding, the Army expects billions of dollars in private capital investment.

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