The US Navy is turning to a portable nuclear microreactor to power a key military base even if the lights go out

• The US Navy has picked Radiant's 1MW Kaleidos microreactor for a prototype plant at Naval Weapons Station Crane in Indiana
• The Pentagon wants it running by September 2028 to keep critical systems powered through potential grid outages
• Kaleidos has not publicly gone critical yet, and one unit will back critical loads, not the whole base

The US Navy wants one of its most important weapons installations to keep running if the commercial grid goes down, so it chose a nuclear reactor that can be trucked in to do the job.

The Navy said it had selected Radiant Industries to design, build, and deliver a prototype microreactor power plant for Naval Weapons Station Crane in southern Indiana, a day after the California startup announced the win.

Brendan Rogers, Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Energy, Installations and Environment, said dedicated reactor power means "our critical naval support systems will never...

Copyright of this story solely belongs to www.techradar.com. To see the full text click HERE