The U.S. Army announced deals Wednesday that could give energy vendors up to $2.2 billion dollars to construct, operate and own nuclear microreactors on five bases across the country – including at Fort Campbell.
The deals are a part of the Army’s Janus Program, which is aimed at using nuclear reactors to shore up the nation’s electric grids by curbing the country’s reliance on commercial energy sources.
"Since launching the Janus Program, our mandate from President Trump and Secretary Hegseth has been clear: secure the power our warfighters need to train, deploy, and win,” said U.S. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll in the release. “We are building the energy resilience necessary to project combat power globally, without relying on potentially vulnerable external grids.”
Janus Program Manager Jason Craft said that the program was “leading the nation in its return to nuclear preeminence.” In that same release, Jeff Waksman, the principal deputy assistant secretary of the Army for Installations, Energy and Environment, laid out the program’s ultimate goals.
“The Janus Program will be a complete success when and only when we have assisted multiple nuclear companies in developing truly reliable and affordable nuclear microreactors which they can sell to other buyers beyond just the military,” Waksman said.
Per a military release, BWXT Advanced Technologies will be contracted at Fort Campbell, along the Kentucky-Tennessee border. Microreactors are also slated to be built by Radiant Industries at Fort Benning in Georgia, by Westinghouse Government Services at Fort Drum in New York, by Antares Nuclear at Fort Bragg in North Carolina and by General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems at Fort Hood in Texas.
The bases were selected, the Army release said, after examining things like energy needs and seismic and hydrological considerations, “all with a primary focus on safety.”
The vendors involved in the Janus Program will only be able to get government funding after successfully hitting “specific technical goals,” though those benchmarks were not defined in the release.
The Janus Program was announced last year, with nine bases initially in the running for microreactors.
In line with a 2025 executive order from President Donald Trump, the Army wants one of these reactors to be operational by September 2028.
No timeline was announced for the Fort Campbell project.
