The U.S. Air Force recently announced that it has picked Eielson Air Force Base in Alaska as
the location to host a new small nuclear reactor as part of a pilot program.
It is located approximately 26 miles (42 km) southeast of Fairbanks, Alaska.
Viewers may note that the base is home to 354th Fighter Wing which operates F-35A
Joint Strike Fighters and F-16 Viper aggressor jets and Alaska Air National Guard's
168th Air Refueling Wing that flies KC-135 tankers as well as many other assets.
The idea is to use nuclear energy to power the base.
In this video Defense Updates analyzes how the US military plans to lower dependency on fossil fuels
with micro nuclear reactors? Let's get started.
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Lots of fuel is required to meet the energy requirement of a military base.
Apart from the negative impact on the environment,
fuels like coal are pretty expensive and time-consuming to transport to the base.
The US military operates bases located in remote, inaccessible regions.
The US also has the largest number of overseas bases.
Keeping these sites running by transporting fuel to them is a
major task and and can be logistic nightmare during a conflict.
The U.S. military, as a whole along with the Department of Energy, has been increasingly
looking into micro-reactor to negate this issue. The goal is to slowly replace fossil fuel
with the nuclear option to meet ever-growing electricity demands.
The micro-reactor pilot is being conceived in response to the Fiscal Year 2019
National Defense Authorization Act that requires identification of the potential
site, construction, and starting operation of a micro-reactor by the end of 2027.
The undertaking is part of Project Pele.
The Office of The Secretary of Defense (OSD) has requested $60 million dollars for Project Pele.
The budget documents state that the goals for Project Pele in the 2022 Fiscal Year are to
"complete the design phase and prepare for construction of a 1-5 Megawatt
electric transportable nuclear microreactor." It is also noted that "due to the nature of this
project, specific applications and detailed plans are available at a higher classification level."
In March of this year, X-Energy and BWX were awarded contracts to begin final design work
on Pele prototypes.
After a two-year design-maturation period,
one of the two is expected to be selected to build and actually demonstrate their design.
Along with the two industry partners, Project Pele is being developed with
inputs from the Department of Energy (DOE), the Nuclear Regulatory Commission,
the National Nuclear Security Administration, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Micro reactors are relatively simple and compact. The main features are as follows:
1. They are small and portable. These can be transported on the back of semi-truck
and hence can be shifty to even remote locations without much hassle.
2. They are fail-safe and self-adjusting. They have fewer components, require less maintenance,
and need fewer operators.
3. They are prefabricated and hence
can start generating power within a month of being delivered to a site. This is because of the fact
that only a simple set of configurations needs to be taken care of during the initial setup.
4. They only need to be refueled once every 10 years.
The thought is that micro-reactors could be built and assembled in factories with modules
to order and then shipped in a standard container to bases like Eielson for final installation.
The ultimate aim is to develop a transportable
nuclear micro reactor that can provide high-output and sustained power.
Since it is a pilot project the 1-5 Megawatt capacity reactor will be built.
To give viewers a perspective, typical civilian nuclear power plants generate hundreds of MW,
the S9G used in the U.S. Navy's Virginia class submarines is a 40-megawatt class reactor
and each Bechtel A1B nuclear reactor installed in Ford-class supercarriers
are designed to develop 300 MW of electricity.
If the prototype works out, the power can be ramped up in subsequent designs.
Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Environment,
Safety, and Infrastructure Mark Correll pointed out clearly,
“Energy is a critical asset to ensure mission continuity at our installations. Micro-reactors
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.”
Mr. Correll added, “This technology has the
potential to provide true energy assurance, and the existing energy infrastructure and
compatible climate at Eielson make for the perfect location to validate its feasibility”
While the system is named 'micro', the potential is
'massive'. It remains to be seen how this promising concept takes shape.