Updated 3/9/20 at 12:35 PM EST to reflect the announcement of the contract awards
WASHINGTON — 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.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 with forces outside the continental United States.The combined $39.7 million in contracts are from “Project Pele,” a project run through the Strategic Capabilities Office (SCO), located within the department’s 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.
Pele “involves 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,” said Lt. Col. Robert Carver, a department spokesman. “After a two-year design-maturation period, one of the companies funded to begin design work may be selected to build and demonstrate a prototype.”...
....MUCH MORE
It seems to be taking a while.
Previously:
January 2019
We've looked at Gen4 Energy, Inc (formerly Hyperion Power) and their trailer-sized nukes which the Department of Energy recently funded for research at Savannah River.July 2012
Here's another of the Small Modular Reactor competitors, via MIT's Technology Review:...
Ohio's FirstEnergy and Babcock & Wilcox to Test Modular Nuclear Reactors (FE; BW)
November 2010
Lloyds List, Hyperion Power, Enterprise Shipping to Explore Nuclear Propulsion for Commercial Shipping
September 2010
Hyperion to Build Demonstration Nuke the Size of two Hot Tubs for DOE Savannah River Site
Surviving in Your Doomsday Bunker with Portable Nuclear Power to Spare
We covered Hyperion's trailer sized nukes, last we heard, the Department of Energy was installing one at Savannah River.* Here's another contender, from the Al Fin blog:
