The army needs portable nuclear reactors. To do this, he commissioned several private companies.
Every organization at any level must reduce its carbon footprint. The army is no exception. In the United States, the military is one of the largest buyers and consumers of fossil fuels, so there is a lot of room for improvement. This is easier said than done, and one must be able to rely on this energy when it comes to life or death in particularly delicate situations.
The army would like to have portable nuclear reactors
Nuclear power is very reliable and can provide huge amounts of energy, from 1 to 5 megawatts. But to make this energy available in the theater of war, it must be… mobile. The United States Army selected BWXT and other companies to develop a fourth-generation portable nuclear reactor.
The goal is to have a nuclear reactor compact enough to fit in a 6m container for ease of transport. The package should also be easy to deploy and should ideally be ready to go within a week of receipt.
He outsourced this to several private companies.
This reactor could also be deployed in disaster areas that have lost access to electricity. Let’s hope, however, that these small reactors will not create the slightest catastrophe. The idea that they, too, could be targeted by enemy forces isn’t entirely reassuring, but risk management has come a long way since the idea was first considered in the 1960s and 1970s.
The fuel is not enriched (less radioactive) and containment tanks and technology are much better today than they were then. The Department of Defense states on this occasion that even if the containment fails, it will not be a “catastrophe”.
Electrifying the military will take a long, long time, but having that amount of electricity can be very beneficial, and not just for logistical or zero-carbon reasons. It could also make it possible to power directed energy weapons such as lasers and other microwave beams, which are ideal projectile interceptors in particular.