New Pentagon Program Could Kickstart a New Era of Nuclear Power
AI is driving investor demand for new nuclear power concepts. The Defense Department is poised to give the best ideas a big boost.
The explosion in new AI capabilities is driving a related competition for more electrical power, including nuclear power. But practical and regulatory obstacles have inhibited investors. Now, the Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Unit has chosen a new slew of companies that are eligible to build small, or “microreactors” at Defense Department installations.
The potential reactors could provide bases with reliable power in the event of a major attack on U.S. infrastructure, or a power collapse due to a national disaster. But the move could also lay the foundation for a microreactor industry, with broad applications for the commercial world.
The companies selected include General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems, Kairos Power, X-Energy, and others, according to DIU’s announcement last week. The companies aren’t on contract yet, Andrew Higier, director of the energy portfolio at DIU, told Defense One. But announcing they are eligible for a contract is the first step.
“The next step would be for vendors to receive what we call a request for prototype proposal, at which point we would actually go into contract negotiations to look to put vendors on contract,” he said.
The Defense Department has been looking at microreactors for years, for a variety of purposes, and has produced some concepts. But concerns about ballooning power requirements for power-hungry AI tools has created an opportunity for the Defense Department to get in on the ground floor and help shape a new industry.
“That AI boom that we're seeing has really reinvigorated the entire industry of micro and small reactors, and more than that, it's catalyzed the industry to start investing private capital into this technology,” Higier said. “I felt compelled that DIU had to be involved here. Because of the AI boom—with big companies out there, Apple, Google, Meta, Facebook—they’re all looking at AI data centers powered by nuclear” energy.
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