Updated 3\/9\/20 at 12:35 PM EST to reflect the announcement of the contract awards<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n
WASHINGTON \u2014 The Pentagon on Monday issued three contracts to start design work on mobile, small nuclear reactors, as part of a two-step plan towards achieving nuclear power for American forces at home and abroad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The department awarded contracts to BWX Technologies, Inc. of Virginia, for $13.5 million; Westinghouse Government Services of Washington, D.C. for $11.9 million; and X-energy, LLC of Maryland, for $14.3 million, to begin a two-year engineering design competition for a small nuclear microreactor designed to potentially be forward deployed<\/a> with forces outside the continental United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The combined $39.7 million in contracts are from \u201cProject Pele,\u201d a project run through the Strategic Capabilities Office<\/a> (SCO), located within the department\u2019s research and engineering side. The prototype is looking at a 1-5 megawatt (MWe) power range. The Department of Energy has been supporting the project at its Idaho National Laboratory<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pele \u201cinvolves the development of a safe, mobile and advanced nuclear microreactor to support a variety of Department of Defense missions such as generating power for remote operating bases<\/a>,\u201d said Lt. Col. Robert Carver, a department spokesman. \u201cAfter a two-year design-maturation period, one of the companies funded to begin design work may be selected to build and demonstrate a prototype.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe Pele Program\u2019s uniqueness lies in the reactor\u2019s mobility and safety,\u201d said Jeff Waksman, Project Pele program manager, in a department statement. \u201cWe will leverage our industry partners to develop a system that can be safely and rapidly moved by road, rail, sea or air and for quick set up and shut down, with a design which is inherently safe.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, Pele is not the only attempt at introducing small nuclear reactors to the Pentagon\u2019s inventory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A second effort is being run through the office of the undersecretary of acquisition and sustainment. That effort, ordered in the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act, involves a pilot program aiming to demonstrate the efficacy of a small nuclear reactor, in the 2-10 MWe range, with initial testing at a Department of Energy<\/a> site in roughly the 2023 timeframe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If the testing goes well, a commercially developed, Nuclear Regulatory Commission licensed reactor will be demonstrated on a \u201cpermanent domestic military installation by 2027,\u201d according to DoD spokesman Lt. Col. Mike Andrews. \u201cIf the full demonstration proves to be a cost effective energy resilience alternative, NRC-licensed [reactors] will provide an additional option for generating power provided to DoD through power purchase agreements.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The best way to differentiate between the programs may be to think of the A&S effort as the domestic program, built off commercial technology, as part of an effort to get off of local power grids that are seen as weak targets, either via physical or cyber espionage<\/a>. Pele is focused on the prototyping a new design, with forward operations in mind \u2014 and may never actually produce a reactor, if the prototype work proves too difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\t