A nuclear reactor was airlifted from March Air Force Base (AFB), Calif. to Hill AFB, Utah, on Sunday, according to a release on the Pentagon’s website.
This is the first time a nuclear reactor has been airlifted as a form of transport. Three C-17 transport planes flew individual components of a Valar Atomics 250 nuclear reactor, which was unfueled. The Ward 250 is five megawatts and could “theoretically power about 5,000 homes,” the Pentagon press release said.
Following the reactor transport was a press conference at Hill AFB with Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, Under Secretary of War for Acquisition and Sustainment Michael Duffey, Utah Governor Spencer Cox, and Valar Atomics CEO Isaiah Taylor. They brought up President Donald Trump’s four nuclear-energy focused executive orders from May.
“It’s clear to me that advancing President Trump’s priority on nuclear energy depends on close coordination between the Department of Energy and the Department of War,” Duffey said at the press conference. “This partnership ensures advanced nuclear technologies are developed, evaluated and deployed in ways that strengthen energy resilience and national security.”
Wright said that part of the executive orders, and part of getting the “American nuclear renaissance” moving, meant by July 4, three small reactors will be running. “That’s speed, that’s innovation, that’s the start of a nuclear renaissance,” he said.