“It is critical that the United States lead in the development and deployment of advanced nuclear reactors to secure our own critical infrastructure with resilient, continuous power, especially for DoD mission critical operations in remote and austere environments.” -Senate Intel Committee Letter to Sec Wormuth (March 2024)
MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA (JUNE 5, 2024) – The Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) and the U.S. Army are soliciting solutions for advanced nuclear power to expand installation resilience. The Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Installations, Energy, and Environment joined forces with DIU to quickly access and ramp nuclear micro-reactor energy commercial capabilities that can be scaled up for deployment at Defense installations.
“Modular advanced nuclear power is a joint and global need. DIU Energy’s effort will help bolster and protect critical energy infrastructure, by providing a supply of carbon-free energy for emerging, future mission and facility needs within the DoD, allowing for installation energy resilience,” observed DIU Energy Portfolio Director Dr. Andrew Higier.
Nuclear reactors and installation resilience are Service priorities. In recent congressional testimony, the Secretary of the Army, HON Christine Wormuth, stated: “We are certainly very focused on energy and resilience at our installations and being able to operate in a more resilient manner. We are interested in the potential of micro reactors.”
DIU’s Commercial Solutions Opening (CSO) is a market-based approach that leverages the Other Transaction (OT) authority to tap into innovative private industrial investments and manufacturing capacity to build new military-specific prototypes.
This follows on the heels of a recent Summit on Domestic Nuclear Deployment held at the White House on May 31, 2024, highlighting recent public and private efforts for advanced nuclear power technologies to push forward on generating new sources of clean energy supply.
See the full solicitation for more information.