As many know, the U.S. military requires absolutely massive amounts of energy to function. How can we make sure that energy is clean and safe? With nuclear.
Want to learn more about the relationship between nuclear and the DOD? We asked NEI’s former Technical Advisor, Dr. Arielle Miller.
What is the DOD’s relationship with nuclear energy like?
The D.O.D. has a pretty long-standing relationship with nuclear energy through the Navy. We have a nuclear-powered navy for submarines and aircraft carriers have nuclear reactors that started with Admiral Rickover in the 1950s. And they have continued that legacy for a long time. In recent years, the DOD has been exploring how to expand that relationship with nuclear energy to other applications outside of propulsion. And that’s currently where we are right now in the market.
Why is energy usage so important for the military?
You may not know this, but around 80% of all of the energy utilized by the U.S. government is utilized by the DOD. That comes from a Brown University study. D.O.D. is a large consumer of energy as a percentage of the U.S. government. In addition to the fact that that has financial implications for how much money they spend on energy, it also becomes incredibly important when you start thinking about energy resilience and the ability to continue to advance in technologies that will require more and more energy consumption.
How is nuclear energy actively involved with the military?
So, another area where the DOD would find synergy with nuclear energy is in remote areas where the DOD may have installation bases and such, and they want, again, that energy reliability, that energy resilience. And it's an area that's hard to reach. Getting fuel there is difficult. Maybe there aren't any local grids that they can tap into. And so nuclear provides that as a potential opportunity for them.
Is the military planning on only using nuclear reactors domestically, or internationally as well?
The DOD from everything that I've seen in the news and coming out of hearings from Congress has been that the DOD is considering them for both domestic in the contiguous United States and potentially our bases in Alaska or Hawaii, but also in other American territories where we have troops and also where we might be able to deploy nuclear energy.
In the case of disaster relief, with respect to disaster relief, the DOD is considering the application of nuclear energy to be brought on site when power plants go down after a disaster like a hurricane or a tornado or something like that. And the different ways in which they could bring that power on to a disaster-ridden area to start to provide that energy both for the population and for first responders that are there to provide support.
How can nuclear energy improve national security?
Microreactors tie-in with fuel convoys because they replace a lot of the necessary fuel replacements to diesel generators by replacing the diesel generators that power the offsite bases. So, when you bring the micro reactor onsite and that is now what is providing that power, it doesn't need to be refueled at that same consistent level as a diesel generator. We're talking about instead of every couple of days you need to have a new fuel delivery, that micro reactor might not need to be refueled or replaced for ten consecutive years. That reduces the amount of times that troops are moving fuel and protecting fuel as they're going to contested environments.
