Project Pele is a

project A project is a type of assignment, typically involving research or design, that is carefully planned to achieve a specific objective. An alternative view sees a project managerially as a sequence of events: a "set of interrelated tasks to be ...

of the

US Department of Defense The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD, or DOD) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government charged with coordinating and supervising the six U.S. armed services: the Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, Space Force, ...

to build a deployable nuclear power reactorPentagon awards contracts to design mobile nuclear reactor
Aaron Mehta, DefenseNews, 2020-03-09 for use in

United States Armed Forces The United States Armed Forces are the Military, military forces of the United States. U.S. United States Code, federal law names six armed forces: the United States Army, Army, United States Marine Corps, Marine Corps, United States Navy, Na ...

remote operating bases. In 2020 the project was listed as relevant to lunar and Mars missions.''A New Era for Deep Space Exploration and Development'' July 2020
/ref> presumably for surface operations rather than rocket propulsion.

Initial contracts

On 9 March 2020, the Department awarded three development contracts, to: * BWX Technologies, of

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

, for $13.5 million; * Westinghouse Government Services of

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

for $11.95 million; and *

X-energy X-energy is a private American nuclear reactor and fuel design engineering company. It is developing a Generation IV reactor, Generation IV high-temperature gas-cooled Pebble bed modular reactor, pebble-bed nuclear reactor design. It has receiv ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...

, for $14.3 million.DOD Awards Contracts for Development of a Mobile Microreactor
media release,

, 2020-03-09 The two-year engineering design competition is for a small nuclear micro-reactor in the 1-5 megawatt (

MWe The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named in honor o ...

) power range.

Development

Out of the initial three contracts - BWX Technologies, Westinghouse Government Services and X-energy - only BWX Technologies and X-energy were selected in 2021 to develop a final design for a prototype mobile microreactor under the Project Pele initiative, and then in June 2022 BWXT was awarded a contract by the US Department of Defense (DOD) Strategic Capabilities Office (SCO) to build the prototype and deliver it by 2024. The estimated cost of this prototype is approximately 300 million USD. In December 2022, BWXT started the TRISO fuel production at BWX Technologies Inc's Lynchburg facility in Virginia. The envisaged reactor is intended to be deployable by road, rail, aircraft, or sea. It will be capable of quickly being brought on load, and be inherently safe. ''Information from: US Army Futures Command''

Notes

References

{{reflist Nuclear reactors Proposed nuclear power stations Nuclear power in the United States Proposed power stations in the United States

Initial contracts

Development

See also

Notes

References