BWXT crews lowered the reactor core barrel through a roof hatch at the company’s Innovation Campus in Lynchburg, Virginia, moving a Defense Department project forward. The plan is to bring nuclear power to troops and their equipment in remote locations. Behind a fence, under a military contract, the machine is taking shape for a purpose set by the Pentagon’s energy needs.
A military project, built by contractors
The Defense Department’s Strategic Capabilities Office selected BWXT in 2022 to develop and deploy Project Pele, a mobile microreactor. Work is concentrated at a fenced-off facility along the James River, about three hours southwest of Washington. Northrop Grumman, Rolls-Royce LibertyWorks and Torch Technologies are also contributing.
The reactor must fit within a shipping container and produce 1.5 megawatts of continuous electricity. Its scheduled route runs from Lynchburg to Idaho National Laboratory next year. There, crews will fuel, test and operate it for three years. Workers broke ground at the Idaho site in 2024, and Charles Graves said it is “progressing well.”
That’s the project’s chain of command in concrete form: a Defense Department office chose the contractor, companies are assembling the hardware, and a military laboratory is set to fuel and test it. The base article describes no community-run decision-making or mutual-aid role. The power is for troops and their equipment, not a locally organized energy system.
The problem the military wants solved
Project Pele aims to address military energy needs and the risks of diesel resupply runs and generators. Their sound can reveal a position. Small, concealable reactors could ease those pressures, according to the project’s rationale; the stated priority is supplying power while meeting the shipping-container limit.
Pele will use tri-structural isotropic fuel. BWXT also makes that fuel and has supplied it to other companies, including startup Antares. The project links a military requirement to a corporate supplier that manufactures fuel as well as assembles the reactor.
The name invokes Pele, the Hawaiian goddess of volcanoes and fire. Its planned output is 1.5 megawatts of continuous electricity. Those specifications describe a compact power source shaped around military logistics and operational needs.
The contractors’ warning
BWXT’s work on Pele is informing another effort, Janus. Under that arrangement, the company is expected to build and operate BANR, a high-temperature, gas-cooled reactor, at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. The account describes the company’s role and the military location, but gives no further details about who will make decisions there or how the project will affect surrounding communities.
Nuclear energy is drawing interest from the White House, Pentagon, Silicon Valley and El Segundo. A Gallup poll conducted in March found growing support among average Americans, though the source gives no year for the poll. That public support sits alongside a project selected and directed through military institutions and corporate contracts.
Charles Graves, BWXT’s director of government microreactors, told Axios: “We are, truly, into the fabrication and assembly cycle.” He added, “There is a huge difference between looking at a paper reactor and getting to a point like this.” Kate Kelly, president of BWXT Advanced Technologies, said: “The gravity of the mission that we are all supporting is quite significant.” Then came the warning: “The industry can't afford a mishap. We need to be successful.” The people building and operating the system face that responsibility; the project’s stated mission comes from the military apparatus above them.