WASHINGTON — The Army has selected five companies to develop, own, build and operate nuclear microreactors at five military installations under agreements worth up to $2.2 billion, launching an effort intended to place at least one Army-regulated reactor in operation by Sept. 30, 2028.
The Aug. 26 announcement is the first vendor-and-site selection under the Army’s Janus Program, an installation-energy initiative created after President Donald Trump directed the Army to establish a nuclear-energy program of record for military installations and operational energy. The awardees will work under milestone-based Other Transaction Authority agreements negotiated with the Defense Innovation Unit, rather than traditional procurement contracts. 2 3
The Army said the combined ceiling is up to $2.2 billion across fiscal years 2027 through 2031. The money is not a single up-front payment and is not divided evenly among the companies. Vendors receive government funding only after meeting technical milestones, while the Army expects private investment to account for a substantial share of total program capital. 2 5
| Vendor | Initial installation | Publicly described reactor information | Schedule or status disclosed publicly |
|---|---|---|---|
| Antares Nuclear Inc. | Fort Bragg, North Carolina | Factory-produced, TRISO-fueled microreactor | Its Mark-0 design completed a zero-power criticality demonstration at Idaho National Laboratory on June 4. 8 11 |
| BWXT Advanced Technologies LLC | Fort Campbell, Kentucky | 20-megawatt-electric high-temperature, gas-cooled reactor using TRISO fuel | BWXT is targeting construction groundbreaking in late 2028 and operation in the early 2030s. 9 |
| General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems | Fort Hood, Texas | Liquid-metal-cooled design with a baseline output of about 5 megawatts electric and a design scalable to about 20 megawatts electric | Development, testing and site-planning milestones are planned before potential deployment. 10 |
| Radiant Industries Inc. | Fort Benning, Georgia | Company describes the Kaleidos design as a 1-megawatt-electric, helium-cooled, TRISO-fueled microreactor | Radiant has publicly described an agreement for up to 15 units by 2030. 5 14 |
| Westinghouse Government Services | Fort Drum, New York | Heat-pipe reactor designed to provide power for eight years without refueling | The Army identified Fort Drum as its initial Janus installation. 2 15 |
The installations will remain connected to the commercial grid. Army officials said the reactors are intended to supply critical infrastructure during outages, not to provide all electricity used at the bases. Output across the selected designs ranges from about 1 megawatt to 20 megawatts, according to officials. 4 5
A resilience program, not an operating fleet
The Army’s announcement represents a selection and development milestone, not the commissioning of a commercial fleet. No nuclear microreactor is now supplying power to the U.S. commercial grid, and none of the Janus units has begun operating at a military installation. 6 7
The 2028 date is a statutory-policy target for one Army-regulated reactor to begin operating at a domestic military installation. It is not a promise that all five vendor teams will deploy by then. The executive order setting the deadline directs the Army to commence operation of a reactor no later than Sept. 30, 2028, subject to applicable law and the availability of appropriations. 3
The vendors are working to different timelines and technical approaches. BWXT, for example, said its Fort Campbell project is targeting site construction in late 2028 and reactor operations in the early 2030s. That public schedule suggests another Janus participant would need to provide the first operating unit if the Army meets the 2028 target without a change in BWXT’s plan. 9
Army officials selected five companies in part to retain competition and manage execution risk. Jeff Waksman, the principal deputy assistant secretary of the Army for installations, energy and environment, said officials recognize a “very real chance” that one or more vendors may fail. 4 5
From Project Pele to Janus
Janus follows Project Pele, a Defense Department effort launched after a 2016 Defense Science Board study warned that rising military energy demand could outpace improvements in energy efficiency and management. Project Pele sought to design, build and demonstrate a prototype mobile reactor while addressing proliferation, environmental and personnel-safety risks. It was supported by a formal environmental impact statement process that produced a record of decision in 2022. 12
In October 2025, the Army launched Janus as a broader effort to field commercially developed microreactors for installation and operational energy. The Army and the Defense Innovation Unit initially considered nine sites: Fort Benning, Fort Bragg, Fort Campbell, Fort Drum, Fort Hood, Fort Wainwright, Holston Army Ammunition Plant, Joint Base Lewis-McChord and Redstone Arsenal. Site screening considered mission requirements, resilience gaps, power infrastructure, seismic and hydrological conditions, local geology and other environmental factors. 13 4
The five initial sites were selected after a matching process that considered the particular reactor design, installation demand, construction needs and utility relationships. The other four finalists were not selected for the first round, but the Army says the program is intended to expand to other Army and service installations. 2 4
Commercial ownership and Army regulation
The reactors will be contractor-owned and contractor-operated. Private-sector personnel, not soldiers or Army civilians, would operate and maintain them. The Army will provide technical support and oversee the regulatory process for the initial installations. 2 4
That distinction is central to the program. The initial Janus reactors will be regulated by the Army rather than licensed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which licenses commercial nuclear reactors. Officials have said they intend to align Army requirements with Energy Department and NRC approaches so vendors can more readily pursue later civilian licensing. 5
The NRC has proposed an accelerated pathway under which designs previously authorized by the Energy Department or Defense Department could use that prior work in commercial licensing applications. The proposal would not eliminate NRC review: applicants would still need to map previous work to NRC requirements, and the commission would retain independent decision-making authority. 16
The program’s commercial ambition also should not be confused with current commercial power sales. Janus is designed to help vendors demonstrate reliable systems that may later be sold to other customers. At the military installations, however, the systems would be contractor-owned assets supporting Army resilience under Army regulation. 2 5
Technology, fuel and operational issues
Microreactors are a subset of small modular reactors, generally defined by the U.S. Energy Information Administration as units with capacities of 20 megawatts or less. They can serve a grid, operate independently or support a microgrid. Their small size and factory-manufacturing approach are intended to improve siting flexibility, though the economics of deployment at scale remain unproven. 6 17
The Janus awardees include designs using distinct technologies. General Atomics has described a liquid-metal-cooled system with natural circulation. BWXT and Antares have described TRISO-fueled systems, and Westinghouse has described a heat-pipe design. Company statements about performance, life cycle and safety remain design claims until they are validated through testing, regulatory review and operation. 9 10 11 15
Several advanced-reactor designs use high-assay low-enriched uranium, or HALEU, which contains more than 5% and less than 20% uranium-235. The NRC says HALEU may enable smaller cores, longer core lives and higher efficiency, but it is not used in U.S. commercial power reactors today. Commercial production, use, storage and transportation are subject to NRC licensing. 18
The Army has said the selected reactors will not use highly enriched, or weapons-grade, uranium. It also says it intends for radioactive waste to leave each installation within two years after a reactor shuts down. Waksman said the Army was still working with the Energy Department on an agreement under which the department would take title to the waste; the arrangement had not yet been finalized when officials briefed reporters Aug. 26. 4
Officials say the designs will use passive or inherent safety characteristics, including systems designed to shut down without external power. Those characteristics can reduce dependence on active equipment, but they do not substitute for site-specific safety analysis, emergency planning, fuel handling, physical security or environmental compliance. The International Atomic Energy Agency similarly notes that passive safety is a feature of some proposed small modular reactor designs and that their economic competitiveness remains to be established in practice. 17
What comes next
The program now moves into technical, regulatory, siting, construction and operating milestones. The Army says it will continue working with utilities and communities near the installations. Each project will need to address site-specific environmental and regulatory requirements before construction and operation. 2 13
The clearest near-term measures of progress will be the release of site-specific plans, regulatory documentation, environmental reviews, fuel-supply arrangements, construction schedules and successful milestone completions. The Army has not publicly identified which vendor it expects to provide the first operating reactor by the September 2028 deadline. 2 4 5
Research PAI: Primary-source analysis and veracity assessment
Shared source: Jeff Waksman LinkedIn post, Aug. 26, 2026, linking to the U.S. Army announcement. 1
Core finding: The shared post accurately identifies the Janus vendor selection, five-company structure, $2.2 billion program ceiling and 2028 target. Its wording should be narrowed in two respects: the Army has not deployed or operated a reactor, and the $2.2 billion is a combined, milestone-based ceiling rather than a completed lump-sum award. The 2028 target applies to at least one reactor, not necessarily every selected project.
Source chain and evidentiary weight
The LinkedIn post was written by Waksman, a senior Army official directly involved with installation-energy policy. It links to the Army’s Aug. 26 announcement, which is the primary record for vendor selection, initial installation pairings, program structure and the government’s stated objectives. The executive order is the primary source for the Sept. 30, 2028, deadline. Independent reporting from DefenseScoop, Federal News Network and The Associated Press provides additional detail from the Army’s media briefing and identifies distinctions not visible in the short social-media post. 1 2 3 4 5 19
| Source | Type | Best use | Assessment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Army, Aug. 26 | Primary government announcement | Awardees, sites, funding ceiling, milestones, ownership and target | High evidentiary weight for stated program terms. 2 |
| Executive Order 14299 | Primary legal-policy record | Army’s program-of-record direction and Sept. 30, 2028, operating target | High evidentiary weight for policy deadline, with appropriations and legal caveats. 3 |
| DefenseScoop and Federal News Network | Independent reporting based on Army briefing | Technical range, schedule differences, waste plan and operational model | High value for quotations and context; confirmation of future outcomes remains pending. 4 5 |
| EIA, NRC and IAEA | Independent or intergovernmental technical authorities | Definitions, fuel and regulatory context | High value for general context, not for particular vendor performance. 6 7 17 18 |
| Vendor releases | Interested-party sources | Claimed reactor features and company schedules | Useful but should be attributed and not treated as independently validated. 9 10 11 15 |
Claim-by-claim assessment
| Claim in the shared post | Finding | Assessment | Evidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| The first fully operational commercial nuclear microreactor “will be deployed” at a U.S. Army installation in 2028. | The Army seeks to begin operating one Army-regulated reactor at a domestic military installation by Sept. 30, 2028. No Janus reactor is operating now. The first unit has not been identified publicly, and at least one vendor’s public operating schedule extends into the early 2030s. | Partly supported; forward-looking and overbroad if read as a completed or guaranteed outcome. | 2 3 5 9 |
| The Army awarded a combined $2.2 billion. | The Army announced awards of up to a combined $2.2 billion over fiscal years 2027-31. Payments are milestone-based. | Supported with material qualification. The ceiling is not an up-front disbursement or a confirmed equal allocation. | 2 5 |
| Five competing commercial companies were selected. | Antares, BWXT, General Atomics, Radiant and Westinghouse were selected for the first round. The Army says competition was deliberate because one or more firms might fail. | Supported. | 2 4 5 |
| The reactors are commercial. | The systems will be contractor-owned and contractor-operated on military installations. Initial oversight will be conducted by the Army, not through an NRC commercial operating license. | Supported only with definition. “Commercial” describes ownership and intended market path, not current sales of nuclear power to civilian grid customers. | 2 5 16 |
Findings that shape the program’s credibility
First, Janus is a deliberately competitive acquisition strategy. The Army used the Defense Innovation Unit’s commercial-solutions process and Other Transaction Authority agreements. The structure pays against milestones and preserves multiple design paths, reflecting the government’s stated assessment that technical and business failure remains possible. The $2.2 billion ceiling therefore funds a portfolio approach, not a single production winner. 2 4 5
Second, the near-term policy target is narrower than a nationwide deployment claim. The executive order directs operation of one Army-regulated reactor by Sept. 30, 2028. The Army expects the program eventually to support more than 20 microreactors across Defense Department installations, but that is an expectation, not a present inventory or a guaranteed deployment schedule. 2 3
Third, Antares’ criticality milestone is technically important but does not mean it is producing electricity. The Energy Department described Antares’ June Mark-0 event as a zero-power fueled criticality demonstration. The milestone demonstrates a sustained nuclear chain reaction and contributes to future design and licensing work; it is not evidence that a commercial unit is already generating power. 8
Fourth, licensing and waste remain material execution issues. The Army plans to regulate the first systems while seeking future alignment with NRC processes. The NRC’s proposed streamlined pathway could ease future commercial applications, but it still requires a separate NRC finding. The Army’s plan to move radioactive waste off bases within two years of shutdown also depends on a final arrangement with the Energy Department that had not been completed as of the Aug. 26 briefing. 4 5 16
Fifth, vendor claims must be kept separate from independently verified performance. The selected companies have public descriptions of reactor capacity, fuels, cooling and refueling cycles, but the systems are not yet operating at the selected installations. Engineering performance, operating cost, construction duration and the ability to meet the 2028 target should be reported as prospective until demonstrated. 9 10 11 15
Watch indicators
| Indicator | Why it matters | Current public status |
|---|---|---|
| First-reactor designation | Identifies which vendor is expected to meet the 2028 target | Not publicly identified. 2 4 |
| Site-specific environmental and regulatory documents | Establish site suitability, safety analysis and public process | Pending for the five initial projects. 2 13 |
| Award amounts and milestone schedules by vendor | Clarifies exposure within the $2.2 billion ceiling | Only Radiant has publicly described a value of up to $750 million. 5 |
| Fuel procurement and fabrication | Determines whether reactor schedules can be sustained | BWXT says its first phase includes TRISO fuel-fabrication work; broader public arrangements remain limited. 9 |
| Waste-transfer agreement with the Energy Department | Tests the feasibility of the Army’s no-long-term-waste plan | Still under negotiation as of Aug. 26. 4 |
| NRC licensing pathway | Affects subsequent nonmilitary commercialization | NRC proposal described in April; case-specific review would still be required. 16 |
Research conclusion
The Janus announcement is a consequential U.S. military energy-resilience acquisition decision and a significant demand signal for domestic advanced-reactor developers. It does not establish that the United States has deployed its first operating commercial microreactor, that every selected project will be running in 2028 or that the full $2.2 billion has been disbursed. The strongest formulation is that the Army has selected five vendor-site teams for milestone-based development and deployment agreements and is pursuing operation of its first Army-regulated installation reactor by Sept. 30, 2028. 2 3 4 5