Pentagon to transport and test next-generation mobile nuclear reactor

The Pentagon on Sunday airlifted a next-generation mobile nuclear reactor from California to a facility in Utah, marking a key step forward in what the Trump administration has cast as a cutting-edge plan to deliver reliable energy at military facilities.

The collaboration between the Defense Department and reactor-maker Valar Atomics, officials said, is an example of the military following through on President Trump’s directive to modernize the nation’s nuclear energy landscape.

Officials said that a U.S. C-17 aircraft moved the unfueled mobile reactor from March Air Reserve Base in California to Hill Air Force Base in Utah on Sunday. It will then be moved to Utah San Rafael Energy Lab to undergo testing and evaluation.

The Pentagon wants to use small, mobile reactors to produce reliable energy that’s not reliant on local electric grids, which could fail or potentially even become targets during a conflict.

The act of moving an entire nuclear reactor via a single military aircraft is a significant and historic step. Nuclear reactors traditionally have been massive structures, whereas the mobile reactor airlifted Sunday fit into a C-17. Some modern mobile reactors can fit onto the backs of pickup trucks.

Pentagon officials said the airlift was the first piece of what will be a long process of logistical and technological testing.

“Today’s activity aligns with the broader initiative to improve the speed, safety and effectiveness of advanced nuclear reactor testing and to better understand the logistics, certification and handling requirements associated with these systems,” Michael Duffy, under secretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment, said Sunday. 

“For the Department of War to deploy transportable nuclear micro reactors, many logistics scenarios need to be tested through demonstrations like these to develop a robust understanding of the challenges involved,” he said. 

The Pentagon said that Sunday’s airlift will advance the broader goal of American energy dominance.

“The successful delivery and installation of this reactor will unlock significant possibilities for the future of energy resilience and strategic independence for our nation’s defense, showcasing an agile, innovative, and commercial-first approach to solving critical infrastructure challenges,” the Pentagon said in a statement. “By harnessing the power of advanced nuclear technology, we are not only enhancing our national security but championing a future of American energy dominance.”

In May, Mr. Trump announced plans for a “nuclear renaissance” that called for quadrupling the nation’s power output by 2050, including 300 gigawatts of net new capacity. One gigawatt of power can provide electricity to about 750,000 homes.

For the military, reliance on diesel generators when deployed and local electric grids here at home — the same grids that serve the general public — is widely viewed as a significant national security threat. If those grids are compromised, either by a natural disaster, kinetic enemy attack or cyber operation, military installations could be without power.

Isaiah Taylor, the founder and CEO of the California-based company Valar Atomics, previously told The Washington Times that his firm is “factorizing” the production of small reactors. His company, Mr. Taylor said, will manufacture in its factories the kinds of reactors that could be used at military installations, rather than the traditional, decades-old approach of constructing large nuclear reactors on site.

“To be dependent on everybody else’s energy supply is very vulnerable … It’s a dependency you don’t want to have,” he said in an interview last October.

While the Navy has long used nuclear energy to power its submarines, insiders say it’s taken years for private industry and other arms of the military to align on the broader goal of mobile ground platforms for nuclear energy.

“That’s really one of the reasons I started Valar Atomics. I realized there was a short window of time we have to get this right,” Mr. Taylor told The Times. “We need to have reactors on bases by 2028 and that requires a completely different pace of building than we’ve seen in the nuclear industry.”