According to Fox News, the U.S. Army announced Wednesday that its "Program Janus" has selected five nuclear energy companies to receive up to $2.2 billion in funding to build, own, and operate nuclear microreactors at military bases in North Carolina, Kentucky, Texas, Georgia, and New York. This announcement comes as the U.S. Army moves toward a goal set in an executive order signed by President Trump—that the first Army-supervised nuclear reactor be operational at a military facility by September 2028. The Army stated that it expects to build and operate more than 20 nuclear microreactors at various Department of Defense bases in the future, supported by private sector investment.
Government funding will be disbursed according to project milestones from fiscal years 2027 to 2031, and companies themselves will also need to invest significant private capital. The significance of this program may extend beyond the military field. The Army has made it clear that it hopes the Janus program will help multiple nuclear energy companies develop sufficiently reliable and affordable technology to eventually sell microreactors to customers outside the military. This means that the US government is actually using military procurement as "first customers" to help the micro nuclear reactor industry complete commercialization verification.
