On February 15th, the United States’ Departments of Energy and War (DoE & DoW), completed the first-ever air transport of a fully integrated nuclear microreactor, highlighting Washington’s push to make small and quickly deployable nuclear power a strategic asset for military and civilian energy applications.
The reactor, known as the Ward 250 microreactor and developed by California-based Valar Atomics, was flown aboard a US Air Force (USAF) C-17 Globemaster III from March Air Reserve Base in California to Hill Air Force Base in Utah. The unit was transported without nuclear fuel in a demonstration aimed at proving the feasibility of quickly deploying the next-generation nuclear power by air, wherever needed.
The US Under Secretary of War for Acquisition and Sustainment Michael Duffey, who accompanied the reactor on the flight with Energy Secretary Chris Wright, described the flight as a monumental step toward building a system that will equip the US troops to win battles at extraordinary speed.
The future of warfare is energy-intensive, he said, and includes AI data centers, directed-energy weapons, and space and cyber infrastructure. The civilian power grid was not built for that, and so the War Department will need to build its own energy infrastructure.
“Powering next generation warfare will require us to move faster than our adversaries, to build a system that doesn’t just equip our warfighters to fight, but equips them to win at extraordinary speed,” Duffey said. “Today is a monumental step toward building that system. By supporting the industrial base and its capacity to innovate, we accelerate the delivery of resilient power to where it’s needed.”
Small modular nuclear reactors are one of the several lines of efforts that the US President Donald Trump’s administration has been undertaking to increase the US’ domestic energy output.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright said that with small reactors like those transferred from March Air Reserve Base to Hill Air Force Base, the United States is aiming for a nuclear energy renaissance.
“The American nuclear renaissance is to get that ball moving again, fast, carefully, but with private capital, American innovation and determination,” Wright said while adding that by July 4th of this year, the Trump administration expects three small reactors will be critical — or running smoothly.
“That’s speed, that’s innovation, that’s the start of a nuclear renaissance,” he continued.
In May 2025, President Trump signed four executive orders aimed at accelerating the expansion of nuclear power within the United States to address the rising electricity demand for national security and artificial intelligence development.
Thereafter, in December 2025, Energy Department also issued two grants to help speed up the progress on small modular reactor development.
The aforesaid developments represent a broader strategic shift in how the US envisions the role of nuclear power in both national defense and civilian energy future. Unlike the traditional nuclear power plants that are massive fixed installations, microreactors are being designed to be small and mobile that can be factory built and transported complete to site, whether by road, rail, ship, or in the case of this particular event, air.
Microreactors are typically small enough to fit on a truck or railcar and, as this week’s flight underscored, can be moved by air to remote or otherwise hard-to-reach locations. Most designs target electric outputs from a few hundred kilowatts up to several megawatts. The Ward 250 that was transported via C-17 is said to produce 5 megawatts, enough to power roughly 5,000 homes.
Per an official DOE informational page about its microreactor program, such systems could one day support military installations in austere environments, or relief missions in disaster zones where reliable energy is hard to secure.
The DOE also see application of such systems in remote civilian settings beyond typical grid infrastructure, which could broaden the domestic energy mix and enhance resilience.
At the same time, the Pentagon has also launched a range of its own microreactor initiatives, including the Advanced Nuclear Power for Installations (ANPI) program, aimed at placing advanced reactors on military bases within the decade, and entails agreements with private sector companies to help develop commercial microreactor designs.
The US Army views microreactors as a tool to increase the resilience and readiness of its installations, and Army planners have been engaging with industry and interagency partners to determine how small reactors could be integrated into future base energy systems, potentially by 2030.
Microreactors’ ability to operate for extended periods without refuelling is seen as a major advantage here, which makes the US government and the industry view them as an alternative to diesel generators, particularly in remote areas where fuel logistics are challenging and costly.
However, not everyone is as enthused about these microreactors with some arguing that microreactors may not be cost-competitive with other energy sources, such as renewables or larger nuclear plants, especially when factoring in development and regulatory costs. They also stress that the economic business case remains unproven at scale.
“There is no business case for microreactors, which — even if they work as designed — will produce electricity at a far higher cost than large nuclear reactors, not to mention renewables like wind or solar,” Edwin Lyman, the director of nuclear power safety at the Union of Concerned Scientists, was cited as saying by Reuters.
Then there is the issue of Radioactive waste management which as of yet, is unresolved. Even small reactors produce waste, and while the federal government regulates storage, transportation and disposal, state authorities can influence environmental permitting and siting, thereby creating a dual layer of review that may affect deployment timelines.
That said, the Energy Department has begun exploring a consent-based approach to long-term nuclear waste storage, asking states whether they would be willing to host permanent repositories. The initiative links future reactor expansion with the need for durable disposal solutions.
Some states including Utah are said to have expressed interest in discussions, though no formal site commitments have been announced.
Tanmay Kadam is a geopolitical observer based in India. He has experience working as a Defense and International Affairs journalist for EurAsian Times. He can be contacted at tanmaykadam700@gmail.com.