The US Army awards contracts to five firms to deploy microreactors across military sites, backed by $2.2 billion in federal funding to boost resilience and commercial viability.

The $2.2 billion in federal funding is intended to boost site resilience and advance the commercial viability of next-generation nuclear power. The Army’s microreactor program could provide a handful of advanced nuclear developers with something the industry has long struggled to secure: a major, committed early customer capable of absorbing some of the financial and technical risks tied to first-of-a-kind deployments.

The Army is not purchasing the reactors outright. Instead, the Defense Innovation Unit is utilizing other transaction authority agreements featuring fixed-price, milestone-based payments partially modeled after NASA’s partnership with SpaceX, Army officials said during a Wednesday media roundtable. These agreements will cover the engineering, qualification, regulatory compliance, and construction required to build the initial microreactors, along with their first year of operation. Following that period, the projects are expected to transition to Army power purchase agreements or other long-term offtake arrangements, Waksman told Utility Dive.

While government funding aims to offset the elevated costs and risks of developing and deploying early commercial units, officials clarified that the federal money is not structured as a conventional cost-sharing arrangement. Waksman noted that officials anticipate private capital will total “billions of dollars” and ultimately constitute the majority of overall investment. The Army declined to provide a precise figure, stating that companies are “still working to raise money off of this announcement.” Army leadership has explicitly framed the initiative as more than a technology demonstration, emphasizing that the goal is to develop reactors capable of delivering reliable electricity for years while laying the groundwork for broader commercial sales. “The Janus Program will be a complete success when and only when we have assisted multiple nuclear companies in developing truly reliable and affordable nuclear microreactors which they can sell to other buyers beyond just the military,” Waksman said in the Army’s official announcement.

Collaboration with utilities will be central to the Army’s nuclear strategy, and the service has invited them to partner on future utility-scale, grid-facing generation facilities located on Army installations. For these initial deployments, reactor design prioritizes installation resilience. Officials stated that the units will remain grid-connected but can serve as backup power during service disruptions. The selected Generation IV microreactors are engineered as “inherently safe” systems that automatically shut down without relying on external power or diesel generators, utilizing natural air circulation to dissipate heat during emergencies. Additionally, the Army emphasized that no long-term nuclear waste will remain on-site. Under a forthcoming Pentagon-wide waste agreement currently being negotiated with the Department of Energy, all spent fuel and radiological materials must be removed from a facility within two years of reactor shutdown.

Although the reactors will operate under an Army-specific regulatory framework rather than the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Waksman confirmed that the service is coordinating closely with both the DOE and the NRC to align standards. This alignment is designed to streamline licensing and facilitate broader commercial deployment once the designs are validated on Army bases. Regarding fuel, Waksman stated that all five selected designs will utilize encapsulated nuclear fuel, with tristructural isotropic (TRISO) fuel emerging as the likely choice due to its existing qualification status and active production. The reactors require high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU), which the DOE is expected to initially supply by downblending existing stockpiles. However, Waksman cautioned that fueling more than 20 units could strain limited U.S. supplies, even as the DOE has committed approximately $2.7 billion to expand domestic enrichment capacity.

Launched in October 2025, the Janus program targets at least one operational reactor by September 30, 2028. Among the five awardees are Antares, Radiant, and Westinghouse, all of which were previously selected alongside the Air Force and the Defense Innovation Unit to develop microreactors at three Air Force bases. While individual company timelines will vary, the overarching program aims to deploy more than 20 reactors across multiple sites within five years. According to Waksman, successful execution of this domestic rollout is intended to establish a foundation for future deployment in remote or austere environments, including Alaska and U.S. Pacific island outposts.