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The Pentagon and the Department of Energy for the first time airlifted a small nuclear reactor from California to Utah, demonstrating what they call the U.S. potential to quickly deploy nuclear power for military and civilian use.
The nearly 1,126-mile flight last weekend, which carried a 5-megawatt microreactor without nuclear fuel, highlights the Trump administration's push to promote nuclear power to help meet growing demand for energy from artificial intelligence and data centers, as well as for military use.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Undersecretary of Defense Michael Duffey, who traveled with the privately built reactor, hailed the trip on a C-17 military plane as a breakthrough in U.S. efforts to accelerate commercial licensing for microreactors, part of a broader effort by the Trump administration to reshape the nation's energy landscape.
President Donald Trump supports nuclear power, a carbon-free energy source, as a reliable source of energy, even though he has been broadly hostile to renewable energy and favors coal and other fossil fuels to generate electricity.
Skeptics warn that nuclear power poses risks and say microreactors may not be safe or feasible and have not proven they can meet demand at a reasonable price.
Wright brushed aside these concerns as he praised progress in Trump's efforts for a rapid escalation of nuclear power.
Trump signed a series of executive orders last year that allow Wright to approve certain advanced reactor designs and projects, stripping authority from the Independent Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which has regulated the U.S. nuclear industry for five decades.
"Today is history. A next-generation multi-megawatt nuclear power plant is loaded onto the C-17 behind us ," Wright said before the two-hour flight from March Air Reserve Base in California to Hill Air Force Base in Utah.
The van-sized reactor being transported by the military is one of at least three that will reach "critical state," when a nuclear reaction can support a series of continuous reactions, by July 4, as Trump has promised, Wright said.
"This is speed, this is innovation, this is the beginning of a nuclear renaissance ," he said.
The microreactors will be for both civilian and military use. There are currently 94 operating nuclear reactors in the US, generating about 19% of the country's electricity, according to the US Energy Information Administration.
That's down from 104 reactors in 2013 and includes two new commercial reactors in Georgia, which were the country's first large reactors built from scratch.
The reactor to be transported to Utah will be able to generate up to 5 megawatts of electricity, enough to power 5,000 homes, according to Isaiah Taylor, CEO of Valar Atomics, the California startup that manufactured the reactor.
The company hopes to start selling energy on a trial basis next year and become fully commercial in 2028.
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