Army Awards $2.2B for Nuclear Microreactors at Five Bases

The U.S. Army announced Wednesday that it will spend up to $2.2 billion to build nuclear microreactors at five military bases from New York to Texas, a major step in the Pentagon’s push to secure energy independence for critical installations. The announcement marks the first concrete awards under the Army’s Janus Program, launched last year to deliver next-generation nuclear energy to the warfighter.

Five companies were selected to own, construct, and operate the microreactors under fixed-price, milestone-based contracts running from fiscal year 2027 through 2031. The selections pair Antares Nuclear with Fort Bragg in North Carolina, BWXT Advanced Technologies with Fort Campbell in Kentucky, General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems with Fort Hood in Texas, Radiant Industries with Fort Benning in Georgia, and Westinghouse Government Services with Fort Drum in New York.

A Strategic Shift Toward Energy Resilience

The program stems from President Trump’s Executive Order 14299, signed in May 2025, which directed the Army to have at least one advanced reactor operating at a domestic military installation by September 30, 2028. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll framed the initiative as essential to national defense.

“Since launching the Janus Program, our mandate from President Trump and Secretary Hegseth has been clear: secure the power our warfighters need to train, deploy, and win,” Driscoll said. “We are building the energy resilience necessary to project combat power globally, without relying on potentially vulnerable external grids.”

The Army’s concern is rooted in a changing threat landscape. “We now know that our domestic electric grid is potentially at risk in a conflict,” said Dr. Jeff Waksman, principal deputy assistant secretary of the Army for Installations, Energy and Environment, as reported by Defense One. “Right now, all critical infrastructure that the Army has is backed up by some form of liquid fossil fuel, primarily diesel. So that makes nuclear energy just a natural game changer for the Army.”

Five Companies, Five Bases, Diverse Technologies

Each selected company brings a distinct reactor design, ranging from 100 kilowatts to 20 megawatts of power output, according to POWER Magazine’s detailed breakdown. The installations will remain connected to the commercial grid, with the reactors designed to provide resilient backup power to critical infrastructure if the grid fails.

Radiant Industries secured the largest disclosed award—up to $750 million to deliver 15 factory-built Kaleidos microreactors by 2030, beginning with a three-unit deployment at Fort Benning. BWXT will deploy a 20-MWe BANR reactor at Fort Campbell, targeting construction in late 2028 and operation in the early 2030s. Antares will bring three R1 microreactors to Fort Bragg, while General Atomics advances its GA-TES liquid-metal-cooled design at Fort Hood. Westinghouse will deploy its eVinci heat-pipe microreactor at Fort Drum, just two days after the design achieved zero-power criticality at the Nevada National Security Site.

A Milestone-Based Contracting Model

The contracts follow a model inspired by NASA’s Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program, with government payments released only when companies meet specific technical objectives. This approach gives the Army flexibility to reallocate funds if a vendor underperforms.

“If a company is not performing, if they are just disappointing, not delivering what we are expecting, we can pull future milestones,” Waksman explained during an Aug. 26 media roundtable, as reported by POWER Magazine. “We have total flexibility, if a company is not performing, to take those dollars away and either inject that to one of the other companies, or even we could potentially inject [that in] a new company at a later date.”

The Army expects more than 20 total microreactors to be built and operated across Department of War installations, with private sector funding expected to accompany government dollars.

Safety, Fuel, and Waste Management

None of the selected reactors will use weapons-grade uranium. All five companies are using encapsulated fuel—primarily TRISO—which is a qualified, manufacturable fuel form. Waksman emphasized that these Generation IV reactors are designed to be inherently safe.

“These reactors, this next generation of reactors, these Generation four reactors are what is called inherently safe,” he said. “That means that the physics of the core itself will shut these reactors down safely. They do not rely on any outside external power or anything else to allow them to shut down safely.”

The Army has also imposed a strict two-year limit on radiological material remaining at any installation after a reactor shuts down, with plans to work with the Department of Energy to remove radioactive waste.

Regulatory Framework and Criticism

The reactors will be licensed by the Army through the Army Reactor Regulatory Office, rather than the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, using longstanding Atomic Energy Act allocations for defense reactors. The Army says it is working to align its regulatory processes with NRC standards so companies can later transition to commercial licensing.

However, the program has drawn criticism. Alan J. Kuperman, associate professor at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin, called the program “a dangerous scam on many levels,” arguing it uses the military’s “deep pockets to provide a hidden subsidy” to nuclear companies that can’t find private-sector customers, as reported by the Fayetteville Observer.

What’s Next

The Army is working toward the September 2028 deadline for at least one reactor to be operational and providing useful electricity to an installation. Officials acknowledge that not all five vendors will meet that timeline, but the portfolio approach is designed to ensure at least one succeeds.

“We do not expect all five of these companies to turn on a reactor in 2028,” Waksman said. “In fact, they definitely will not. But we do believe we have a very practical pathway to delivering at least one of these reactors on by September 30, 2028.”

The program represents a significant bet on small-scale nuclear technology as a solution for military energy security. As WKMS reported, the ultimate goal is to help nuclear companies develop reliable, affordable microreactors they can sell beyond the military. “The Janus Program will be a complete success when and only when we have assisted multiple nuclear companies in developing truly reliable and affordable nuclear microreactors which they can sell to other buyers beyond just the military,” Waksman said.

With additional bases and vendors expected to be announced in the coming months, the Janus Program is poised to reshape how the military powers its installations—and potentially how the broader U.S. energy market adopts advanced nuclear technology.