The Pentagon has chosen three microreactor companies for use at Air Force bases as the military's nuclear program progresses towards 2030.

      Summary: The Pentagon has narrowed its Advanced Nuclear Power for Installations (ANPI) program from eight companies to three, moving towards deploying microreactors at Buckley Space Force Base (Colorado) and Malmstrom Air Force Base (Montana) by 2030. The original list of eight vendors included BWXT, Oklo, X-energy, Kairos Power, Radiant, General Atomics, Westinghouse, and Antares. This commercially owned reactor model, supported by Executive Order 14299 and $125 million in Congressional funding, addresses military grid vulnerabilities and serves as a testing ground for reactors that could also power AI data centers.

      The Pentagon has selected three companies from an initial pool of eight to advance its program aimed at installing microreactors at US Air Force bases, as reported by Bloomberg on Tuesday. This down-selection marks a significant milestone in the ANPI program, a collaborative initiative involving the Defense Innovation Unit, the Air Force, and the Army, designed to make military bases energy-independent by reducing their dependency on a civilian power grid that is increasingly threatened by cyberattacks, extreme weather, and the rising demands of AI-driven energy consumption.

      The program began in April 2025 when the DIU chose eight companies to submit microreactor proposals: Antares Nuclear Energy, BWXT Advanced Technologies, General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems, Kairos Power, Oklo, Radiant Industries, Westinghouse Electric Company, and X-energy. Each company was tasked with designing commercially owned reactors that could be constructed on military land, licensed through the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and maintained by the vendor throughout their operational lifespan. The military would purchase electricity without owning the reactors, a model intended to expedite deployment by avoiding the lengthy procurement cycles that have historically hindered defense infrastructure projects.

      Reasons for Air Force bases needing independent power sources include the Department of Defense's annual electricity consumption exceeding 30 terawatt-hours across over 500 installations, making it the largest energy consumer in the US government. Most of this power is drawn from the civilian grid, which is now seen as a strategic vulnerability. Cyberattacks targeting US energy infrastructure have surged by nearly 70% in recent years, and the grid faces increasing pressure from data center development, with projections indicating that global data center electricity usage will surpass 1,000 terawatt-hours by the end of 2026. Military bases that accommodate missile fields, space surveillance operations, and nuclear command structures cannot compete with AI training clusters for grid capacity.

      Buckley Space Force Base in Aurora, Colorado, which hosts the Aerospace Data Facility—one of the Department of Defense’s key satellite ground stations—and Malmstrom Air Force Base in Great Falls, Montana, overseeing 150 Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles across 13,800 square miles, have been chosen as the initial deployment sites. Both bases require a reliable power supply for operations critical to national security. Nancy Balkus, the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for operational energy, stated that energy security at these bases is a matter of readiness rather than efficiency, aiming for operational microreactors at both sites by 2030.

      The technology involved, microreactors, are nuclear fission reactors usually producing between one and 20 megawatts of electrical power, compact enough to be transported on a few truck trailers while still sufficient to power a military base or small data center. They utilize advanced fuel types, primarily TRISO (tristructural isotropic) particles encased in ceramic and graphite shells that endure extreme temperatures without melting. Several ANPI candidates use high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU), enriched between 5% and 20% uranium-235, which is higher than standard reactor fuel but significantly below weapons-grade material.

      The designs show significant variation. BWXT’s Project Pele, independently developed for the Army, is a 1.5-megawatt transportable reactor that already completed initial testing at Idaho National Laboratory and employs TRISO fuel with a gas-cooled design. In February 2026, the Pentagon airlifted a five-megawatt microreactor prototype from California to Utah, marking the first military nuclear airlift and showcasing the transportability that enhances its appeal for expeditionary and remote base operations. Oklo, led by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, is designing a compact fast reactor known as the Aurora that employs metallic fuel for military and commercial uses. X-energy, supported by Amazon, is developing the Xe-100, an 80-megawatt high-temperature gas-cooled reactor utilizing TRISO-X fuel pebbles. Kairos Power is constructing a fluoride salt-cooled reactor, while Radiant Industries, founded by former SpaceX engineers, is creating a portable one-megawatt reactor aimed at quick deployment.

      Only NuScale Power has acquired full design certification from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for a small modular reactor, but its design is a 77-megawatt light-water