The Pentagon said it airlifted a next-generation nuclear reactor from California to Utah on Feb. 15 to boost energy security and reduce the military’s reliance on the civilian power grid.
The reactor was airlifted from March Air Reserve Base in California to Hill Air Force Base in Utah aboard a C-17 Globemaster aircraft. It will later be transported to the Utah San Rafael Energy Lab for testing and evaluation, the Pentagon said in a statement.
The Pentagon said the reactor is small and can generate up to 5 megawatts of electricity, sufficient to power about 5,000 homes.
According to the Department of War, the reactor will ensure a reliable energy supply for America’s military bases and protect U.S. forces stationed overseas from potential fuel-supply disruptions by an enemy.
Michael P. Duffey, undersecretary of the War Department for acquisition and sustainment, said the move will advance President Donald Trump’s executive orders seeking to modernize the U.S. nuclear energy landscape.
Duffey said the Pentagon aims to build its own energy infrastructure to support future warfare demands that may include “AI data centers, directed-energy weapons, and space and cyber infrastructure.”
“Today is a monumental step toward building that system. By supporting the industrial base and its capacity to innovate, we accelerate the delivery of resilient power to where it’s needed.”
The Pentagon partnered with the Energy Department and nuclear energy company Valar Atomics to airlift the reactor.
In a post on X, Valar Atomics founder and CEO Isaiah Taylor said the airlift marked the first time a nuclear reactor has been transported aboard a C-17 aircraft as part of “Operation Windlord,” with two more flights expected at a later date.
Secretary of Energy Chris Wright said the department expects to have three small reactors operational by July 4 to achieve the government’s push for “a nuclear energy renaissance.”
“The American nuclear renaissance is to get that ball moving again, fast, carefully, but with private capital, American innovation and determination,” Wright said in the statement.
One of the orders directed the departments to reinvigorate the nation’s nuclear energy industrial base “by increasing fuel availability and production, securing civil nuclear supply chains, improving the efficiency with which advanced nuclear reactors are licensed, and preparing our workforce to establish America’s energy dominance and accelerate our path towards a more secure and independent energy future.”
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