ByREUTERS
Updated: 
The US Departments of Energy and Defense on Sunday for the first time transported a small nuclear reactor on a cargo plane from California to Utah to demonstrate the potential to quickly deploy nuclear power for military and civilian use.

The agencies partnered with California-based Valar Atomics to fly one of the company’s Ward microreactors on a C-17 aircraft, without nuclear fuel, to Hill Air Force Base in Utah.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment Michael Duffey were on the C-17 flight with the reactor and its components, and hailed the event as a breakthrough for US nuclear energy and military logistics.

“This gets us closer to deploy nuclear power when and where it is needed to give our nation’s warfighters the tools to win in battle,” Duffey said.

President Donald Trump‘s administration sees small nuclear reactors as one of several ways to expand US energy production. Last May, Trump issued four executive orders aimed at boosting domestic nuclear deployment to meet growing energy demand, support national security, and advance competitive AI.

US President Donald Trump speaks during a reception with business leaders, at the 56th annual World Economic Forum (WEF), in Davos, Switzerland, January 21, 2026.
US President Donald Trump speaks during a reception with business leaders, at the 56th annual World Economic Forum (WEF), in Davos, Switzerland, January 21, 2026. (credit: REUTERS/JONATHAN ERNST)

Energy Department issues grants to help accelerate developing modular reactors

The Energy Department in December issued two grants to help accelerate the development of small modular reactors.

Proponents of microreactors have also touted them as energy sources that can be sent to remote locations, offering an alternative to diesel generators, which require frequent fuel deliveries. But skeptics have argued that the industry has not demonstrated that small nuclear reactors can generate power at a reasonable cost.

“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,” said Edwin Lyman, director of nuclear power safety at the Union of Concerned Scientists.

The Energy Department plans to have three microreactors reach “criticality,”  when a nuclear reaction can sustain itself, by July 4, Wright said.

The microreactor in Sunday’s event, a little larger than a minivan, can generate up to 5 megawatts of electricity, enough to power 5,000 homes, according to Valar CEO Isaiah Taylor. It will start operating in July at 100 kilowatts and peak at 250 kilowatts this year before ramping up to full capacity, he said.

Valar hopes to start selling power on a test basis in 2027 and become fully commercial in 2028. Although private industry funds its own development of nuclear technology, it also needs the federal government “doing some enabling actions to allow fuel fabrication here and uranium enrichment here,” he said.

Fuel for Valar’s reactor will be transported from the Nevada National Security site to the San Rafael facility, Wright told reporters.

However, even small generators result in a significant amount of radioactive waste, Lyman said. Other experts have said designers are not compelled to consider waste at inception, beyond a plan for its management.

Although disposal of nuclear waste remains unresolved, the Energy Department is in talks with a few states, including Utah, to host sites that could reprocess fuel or handle permanent disposal, Wright said.