Mobile nuke power plants for US troops in remote outposts

FULLER VERSION OF MY PIECE IN THE TIMES TODAY: American troops deployed to remote outposts overseas are to be given mobile mini-nuclear power plants to guarantee electricity supply instead of relying on diesel, the Pentagon has announced. Three contracts worth a total of $40 million have been awarded for the design of a micro-reactor capable of generating one to five megawatts of power. It is envisaged the reactor will be about 40 tons in weight, less than a US Abrams battle tank, which can be transported by road, rail, sea or air. A reactor that size and weight could fit into a C-17 Globemaster aircraft. The Pentagon has been considering mobile nuclear plants for years. But now the first step has been taken to make it happen. The design competition known as Project Pele is between three companies, with the aim of producing a demonstration prototype after two years. A Pentagon spokesman said the plan was to develop a “a safe, mobile and advanced nuclear micro-reactor to support a variety of department of defence missions such as generating power for remote operating bases”. The reactors would last for three years without refuelling. Deploying mobile nuclear plants will present the Pentagon with huge security challenges, not just from the potential threat posed by terrorists but also in the event of a serious malfunction of the reactor. “Fielding these reactors in battlefield conditions without commanders fully understanding the radiological consequences and developing robust response plans to cope with the aftermath [of a breakdown] could prove to be a disastrous miscalculation,” Edwin Lyman of the US Union of Concerned Scientists, said. The reactors will be designed to make a nuclear “meltdown” physically impossible, officials said. The chosen prototype will also need to be capable of withstanding “a direct kinetic attack”. The US army published a study on mini-nuke reactors in 2018, recommending a switch away from diesel for providing power in overseas locations. The report said lorry deliveries of diesel came “at a significant cost in terms of lives and dollars”. “Approximately 18,700 casualties or 52 per cent of the 36,000 total US casualties over a nine-year period during Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom [Afghanistan] occurred from hostile attacks during land transport missions,” the US army said. The report suggested a number of locations where a small mobile nuclear power plant could be deployed, including the huge Bagram base near Kabul in Afghanistan, Diego Garcia, Guam, Thule airbase in Greenland, Ascension Island and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.