A U.S. Army Truck hauling a Holos small nuclear generator with skin, shields and auxiliary ... [+]
Eielson Air Force Base was selected by the U.S. Air Force to receive its first nuclear microreactor, a nuclear power plant of up to 5 MWe, which could be operational there as soon as 2027.
In a news release announcing the project Mark Correll, the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Environment, Safety and Infrastructure, said “Energy is a critical asset to ensure mission continuity at our installations. Microreactors are a promising technology for ensuring energy resilience and reliability, and are particularly well-suited for powering and heating remote domestic military bases like Eielson AFB and other critical national security infrastructure.”
The project began with a National Defense Authorization Act requirement to identify suitable locations for the development and operation of a micro-reactor by the year 2027. It will be coordinated by Correll with the Air Force Office of Energy Assurance, the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Environment and Energy Resilience, the Department of Energy and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The groups will also be working together to oversee the safety of the project.
The microreactor will be actually be commercially owned, operated and licensed by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Eielson is currently powered by its own coal plant, which typically produces about 14 MWe, by burning up to 800 tons of coal each day. It also keeps 90 days' supply on site but needs a facility to thaw the coal, a liability in frozen environments that nuclear does not have. The base operates independently but can connect to the grid for uses such as frequency control.
The planned microreactor would supplement this coal power with 1-5 MWe of nuclear power.
Eielson served as the reference case for a 2018 roadmap for microreactor deployment by the Nuclear Energy Institute which was supported by the US Air Force, which gave the same timeline to operation in 2027. It stated that "Most Department of Defense (DoD) installations will seek one or more microreactors in the 2-10 MWe range."
Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska - An A-10 Warthog breaks over the Pacific Alaska Range Complex during ... [+]
Microreactors offer a range of benefits attractive to military bases. Chiefly, they remove reliance on the grid, which is "vulnerable to prolonged outage due to a variety of threats" and can provide both the electricity and heat that bases need. Moreover, the US DoD sees its needs for electricity growing as it requires power to desalinate water, produce hydrogen and support increasing data processing as well as to power robots and directed-energy weapons such as lasers.
There is currently one microreactor vendor in the NRC's licensing process, Oklo, which submitted an application for its 1.5 MWe Aurora design in March 2020. Many other designs are in development by various vendors, some of which are in pre-licensing relationships with the NRC.
A separate DoD project called Project Pele is looking to create a small nuclear power option for forward bases of the U.S. Military, which have similar needs to other facilities but especially want to reduce reliance on long and risky supply lines of water and liquid fuels, a major tactical problem in military operations.The Holos reactor has been designed specifically for the military (see figure) and specifically to be mobile for the needs of DoD.
So I am hopeful that the Military might just drag the rest of us kicking and screaming into the nuclear age. Every branch of the United States Military is worried about climate change. They have been since well before it became controversial. And the Military knows nuclear very well from the brilliant operational history of our Nuclear Navy, which has employed over a hundred small nuclear reactors over several decades.
Since Ronald Reagan’s Administration, the U.S. Military was seriously studying global warming in order to determine what actions they could take to prepare for the change in threats that our military will face in the future.
The Center for Naval Analysis has had its Military Advisory Board examining the national security implications of climate change for many years. Lead by Army General Paul Kern, the Military Advisory Board is a group of 16 retired flag-level officers from all branches of the Service.
This is not a group normally considered to be liberal activists and fear-mongers.
“The potential security ramifications of global climate change should be serving as catalysts for cooperation and change. Instead, climate change impacts are already accelerating instability in vulnerable areas of the world and are serving as catalysts for conflict.”
Bill Pennell, former Director of the Atmospheric Sciences and Global Change Division at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, summed up the threat this way:
“The countries and regions posing the greatest security threats to the United States are among those most susceptible to the adverse and destabilizing effects of climate change. Many of these countries are already unstable and have little economic or social capital for coping with additional disruptions.”
“Whether in Africa, the Middle East, South Asia, or North Korea, we are already seeing how extreme weather events - such as droughts and flooding and the food shortages and population dislocations that accompany them - can destabilize governments and lead to conflict. For example, one trigger of the chaos in Syria has been the multi-year drought the country has experienced since 2006 and the Assad Regime’s ineptitude in dealing with it.”
Whatever your thoughts on the relative human and natural influences on climate change, ignoring our military is not prudent. They understand the dangers of not being prepared.
