BWXT to Build First Advanced Microreactor in United States

 U.S. Department of Defense Strategic Capabilities Office Selects BWXT to Manufacture and Deliver Project Pele Prototype Reactor to Idaho National Laboratory in 2024
Artist’s rendering of BWXT’s Project Pele transportable reactor modules arriving for set up and operation.
Artist’s rendering of BWXT’s Project Pele transportable reactor modules arriving for set up and operation.

BWX Technologies, Inc. has announced will build the first advanced nuclear microreactor in the United States under a contract awarded by the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) Strategic Capabilities Office (SCO). The Project Pele full-scale transportable microreactor prototype will be completed and delivered in 2024 for testing at the Idaho National Laboratory. The prototype will be built under a cost-type contract valued at approximately $300 million, depending on options selected, by BWXT Advanced Technologies LLC in facilities in Lynchburg, Virginia and Euclid, Ohio. Over the next two years, BWXT expects that approximately 120 employees will work on the project, including roughly 40 skilled trades, engineers and other positions that will be hired to support this effort and other projects.

Transportable microreactors deliver clean, zero-carbon energy where and when it is needed in a variety of austere conditions for not only the DoD, but also potential commercial applications for disaster response and recovery, power generation at remote locations, and deep decarbonization initiatives.

“We are on a mission to design, build and test new nuclear technology to protect the environment while providing power, and we are thrilled with this competitively bid award after years of hard work by our design and engineering team,” said Joe Miller, BWXT Advanced Technologies LLC president. “The entire nuclear industry recognizes that advanced reactors are an important step forward to support growing power needs and significant carbon reduction imperatives.”