DoD to Build Nuclear Microreactors

[ORAC]

Ascension Island one possible deployment site - though presumably they’d need to get UK permission. Same applies to Diego Garcia.

https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2022/04/15/pentagon-to-build-nuclear-microreactor-to-power-far-flung-bases/

Pentagon to build nuclear microreactors to power far-flung bases

The 2018 Army G-4 report listed the following locations as potential candidates or templates for where the microreactor could be installed:
.

Thule, Greenland
Kwajalein Atoll
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba
Diego Garcia
Guam
Ascension Island
Fort Buchanan, Puerto Rico
Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan
Camp Buehring, Kuwait
Fort Greely, Alaska
Lajes Field, Azores

Not directly related, but almost certainly a driving force behind it, is the need for power on the future battlefield.

https://www.defensenews.com/land/2022/04/12/power-struggle-how-the-us-army-is-tackling-the-logistics-of-battlefield-electricity/

Power struggle: How the US Army is tackling the logistics of battlefield electricity

[HOVIS]

https://www.rolls-royce.com/innovation/small-modular-reactors.aspx#/

Rolls Royce are on it!

[mopardave]

https://www.rolls-royce.com/innovation/small-modular-reactors.aspx#/

Rolls Royce are on it!
Shame the share price is in the doldrums........I remember when they were £12!!:{

[Ninthace]

The SL-1 reactor at Idaho Falls was a military reactor designed for sustained operation at remote locations. It did not end well to put it mildly Hopefully this project has a better outcome.

[Lonewolf_50]

ORAC, sometimes unintentional humor is the best kind. From the linked article:
The moniker “Pele” refers not to the famous Brazilian soccer player but instead is a nod to the Hawaiian deity Pele, the goddess of fire and volcanos and mythological creator of the Hawaiian islands.
But of course, there has to be an acronym and for this project it is Portable Energy for Lasting Effects. Jimmy Buffet wept...with tears of laughter.

[sandiego89]

Hopefully Bagram has been removed from the list! :rolleyes:

McMurdo would also make sense- they did have an early nuke power unit there.

[Asturias56]

Hopefully Bagram has been removed from the list! :rolleyes:

McMurdo would also make sense- they did have an early nuke power unit there.
Nuclear Power at McMurdo Station, Antarctica (http://large.stanford.edu/courses/2014/ph241/reid2/)

Not a great success - "ConclusionThe nuclear reactor installed at McMurdo Station was the first and only to operate on the Antarctic continent. It operated for 10 years and greatly reduced the need for fossil fuels in the Antarctic. Although it was initially thought to be a cost saving device, its unreliability, large operational crew, and large clean up proved it to be an expensive experiment. As a memorial, a plaque now stands at the site of the nuclear power station in McMurdo commemorating the people and services of the PM-3A.

[sandiego89]

Nuclear Power at McMurdo Station, Antarctica (http://large.stanford.edu/courses/2014/ph241/reid2/)

Not a great success - "ConclusionThe nuclear reactor installed at McMurdo Station was the first and only to operate on the Antarctic continent. It operated for 10 years and greatly reduced the need for fossil fuels in the Antarctic. Although it was initially thought to be a cost saving device, its unreliability, large operational crew, and large clean up proved it to be an expensive experiment. As a memorial, a plaque now stands at the site of the nuclear power station in McMurdo commemorating the people and services of the PM-3A.

Perhaps technology has improved a bit since @1960. The program was started around 1954 when nuclear power generation was in its infancy, and the PM-3 was pretty crude.

[BFSGrad]

The SL-1 reactor at Idaho Falls was a military reactor designed for sustained operation at remote locations. It did not end well to put it mildly Hopefully this project has a better outcome.While the SL-1 accident was spectacular and dramatic, it certainly doesn’t represent current nuclear power technology. Less than a decade after the SL-1 accident, the U.S. Navy put NR-1 into service, a very compact nuclear reactor platform that safely operated for almost 40 years.

[Asturias56]

"Perhaps technology has improved a bit since @1960"

Absolutely - but there's really little benefit in a reactor in the Antarctic - it requires dedicated crews and that just adds to the supply issues - which are the main cost of supporting people down there

[sandiego89]

"Perhaps technology has improved a bit since @1960"

Absolutely - but there's really little benefit in a reactor in the Antarctic - it requires dedicated crews and that just adds to the supply issues - which are the main cost of supporting people down there

I would assume that millions of gallons of fuel are also a "supply issue". And diesel generators also require crews to run and maintain.

This source says McMurdo alone consumes 1,300,000 gallons of diesel per year for power, heat and desalination.

https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy05osti/38124.pdf

The logistics challenges associated with fuel in Antarctica are numerous, with type, temperature, storage, costs, limited delivery window, forwarding of fuel to remote sites, etc. Each gallon/pound delivered take more gallons to get it there.

https://erdc-library.erdc.dren.mil/jspui/bitstream/11681/24335/1/ERDC-CRREL%20TR-17-15.pdf

This source identifies over 8 million gallon of fuel transported south each year, bit dated. A good portion is aviation fuel.

https://nap.nationalacademies.org/read/11753/chapter/11 page 75

There are also concerns about fossil fuel burning in the extremely dry areas of Antarctica.

https://online.ucpress.edu/elementa/article/doi/10.1525/elementa.288/112789/The-impact-of-fossil-fuel-burning-related-to

[Setpoint99]

The SL-1 reactor at Idaho Falls was a military reactor designed for sustained operation at remote locations. It did not end well to put it mildly Hopefully this project has a better outcome.
The word within the nuclear industry has long been that this "accident" quite possibly was caused by suicide, involving conflict amid a romantic threesome. Googling the key words "SL-1 + suicide" will reveal the details.

[Ninthace]

The word within the nuclear industry has long been that this "accident" quite possibly was caused by suicide, involving conflict amid a romantic threesome. Googling the key words "SL-1 + suicide" will reveal the details.
We used to use the film made of the clean up to train military health physics personnel Yes the accident was caused by a deliberate act, the manual withdrawal of a control rod while the reactor was scrammed. But there is a bit more to it The reactor was designed to run for extended periods in remote locations by very few personnel. One of the design flaws was it was over fuelled to extend its life. As a result, it could not only go critical but also super critical on the withdrawal of a single control rod. This generated a steam explosion which actually blew the reactor vessel several feet into the air.

[etudiant]

https://www.rolls-royce.com/innovation/small-modular-reactors.aspx#/

Rolls Royce are on it!

Rolls Royce is pursuing a more established design, a small to medium size reactor producing 300-500 Megawatts of electricity, much smaller than the 1500-2000 megawatt behemoths currently being built.
The Pentagon is aiming to deploy micro reactors in the 10-100 megawatt class, hopefully able to operate independently for extended periods. This poses much more difficult problems, so there is no clearly leading candidate as yet.

[Asturias56]

Yes Sandie - but as you say a large proportion of the fuel sent south is for transport purposes and off base heating - a reactor doesn't help with that

Anyway I'm sure the Pentagon have a lot of other locations far higher on the list than McMurdo which ias about as far from any strategic position as it's possible to be

[ORAC]

https://www.c4isrnet.com/battlefield-tech/2022/06/09/pentagon-chooses-design-for-project-pele-portable-nuclear-reactor-prototype/

Pentagon chooses design for ‘Project Pele’ portable nuclear reactor prototype

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon selected BWXT Advanced Technologies to build a prototype of a mobile nuclear reactor that will demonstrate the utility of a portable alternate energy source to support military operations in austere locations.

The U.S. Department of Defense’s Strategic Capabilities Office last year selected Lynchburg, Virginia-based BWXT and X-energy, a nuclear reactor company based in Rockville, Maryland, to design prototypes of a small, portable nuclear reactor under an effort called “Project Pele.” (https://www.defensenews.com/smr/energy-and-environment/2021/03/23/portable-nuclear-reactor-project-moves-forward-at-pentagon/) BWXT announced June 9 that the Pentagon chose its prototype and awarded a contract worth as much as $300 million.

Under the contract, the company will deliver its full-scale microreactor in fiscal 2024. The system will then undergo up to three years of testing at Idaho National Laboratory to validate its performance and demonstrate that the prototype can provide “reliable off-grid electric power,” BWXT said in a press release.….

The department does not yet have a strategy for procuring additional reactors beyond the initial Project Pele prototype. Its longer-term vision is to reduce energy spending and dependence on fuel and local power grids. The department uses some 30 terawatt hours of electricity annually (https://www.defense.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/2998460/dod-to-build-project-pele-mobile-microreactor-and-perform-demonstration-at-idah/) and more than 10 million gallons of fuel each day and expects those levels to increase.….

BWXT will serve as the prime contractor and integration lead for the effort and is responsible for manufacturing the reactor module. It is also teaming with a number of companies to develop its prototype, including Northrop Grumman, Aerojet Rocketdyne, Rolls-Royce and Torch Technologies.

[ORAC]

Ukraine and the United States are launching a pilot project to build small modular reactors (SMR) in Ukraine..

https://www.state.gov/special-presidential-envoy-for-climate-kerry-and-ukraine-minister-of-energy-galushchenko-announce-cooperation-on-a-clean-fuels-from-small-modular-reactors-pilot-cop27-climate-conference/

Special Presidential Envoy for Climate Kerry and Ukraine Minister of Energy Galushchenko Announce Cooperation on a Clean Fuels from Small Modular Reactors Pilot, COP27 Climate Conference

[Herod]

Thorium, anyone? Perhaps it's not suitable for a small reactor?

[NutLoose]

Russia used to have them to power remote lighthouses

https://megaprojects.net/projects/the-soviet-nuclear-powered-lighthouses/

[WB627]

The Americans were working on them in 1954

The Army Nuclear Power Program (ANPP) was a program of the United States Army to develop small pressurized water and boiling water nuclear power reactors to generate electrical and space-heating energy primarily at remote, relatively inaccessible sites. The ANPP had several accomplishments, but ultimately it was considered to be "a solution in search of a problem." The U.S. Army Engineer Reactors Group managed this program and it was headquartered at Fort Belvoir, Virginia. The program began in 1954 and had effectively terminated by about 1977, with the last class of NPP operators graduating in 1977. Work continued for some time thereafter either for decommissioning of the plants or placing them into SAFSTOR (long term storage and monitoring before decommissioning). The current development of small modular reactors has led to a renewed interest in military applications.[1][2][3]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Army_Nuclear_Power_Program#List_of_plants