US Air Force Announces Plans for a Micro Nuclear Reactor in Alaska

This week the U.S. Air Force announced that it's chosen Alaska's Eielson Air Force Base as the site for its first 'micro' nuclear reactor test program.

The Drive reports:

The U.S. military, as a whole, together with the Department of Energy has been increasingly looking into micro-reactor designs as possible ways to meet ever-growing electricity demands, including for units on the battlefield, as well as to help cut costs and improve general operational efficiency by reducing reliance on fossil fuels. The base is situated deep within the interior of Alaska near the city of Fairbanks and is around 110 miles south of the Arctic Circle [and 26 miles from Fairbanks].

It is not clear exactly what the specifications might be for the reactor that is now set to be constructed at Eielson... The Air Force did say that the project in question had been initiated in response to language in the annual defense policy bill, or National Defense Authorization Act for the 2019 Fiscal Year and that the goal is for the micro-reactor to be fully operational by the end of 2027. This would seem to indicate that this reactor is the one that the Office of the Secretary of Defense's Strategic Capabilities Office is leading the development of as part of an effort known as Project Pele. The goal of that project, which started in 2019 and that you can read more about here, is to demonstrate a small reactor capable of producing between one and five megawatts of power...

In March, the Pentagon awarded contracts for prototype Project Pele reactors to X-Energy and BWX Technologies. These deals cover the continued maturation of the respective designs over the next two years, with the expectation being that a winning design will be selected afterward. The hope is that work on an actual microreactor will begin by the end of the 2022 Fiscal Year...

It is worth pointing out that 19,780 acres associated with Eielson are already designated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as a so-called 'Superfund site,' due to existing toxic chemical contamination related to 'closed and active unlined landfills, shallow trenches where weathered tank sludge was buried, a drum storage area, and other disposal and spill areas.'

Waste from the micro-reactor 'will be subject to the same rigorous storage and control requirements of the commercial nuclear industry,' explains an Air Force FAQ. (Though more specifically, it says that 'Used fuel will be stored on-site using NRC-licensed storage casks pending a decision on the ultimate disposition of commercial spent fuel.') The FAQ also notes the reactor will not be connected to the commercial grid.

The Drive points out that currently the Air Force has just been using a fleet of diesel locomotives that bring the base trainloads of coals.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.