Defense Department Goes for a Power Play

摘要

The U.S. Defense Department is working toward a mini nuclear reactor that could solve its small-scale localized energy needs. The device would be rapidly deployable for bases and outposts as well as provide power for up to three years with minimal supervision. It would not pose many of the safety challenges if existing nuclear power plants, and it would help alleviate the threat to energy supply convoys in contested areas. For deployed forces in combat, there's rarely an electric grid to rely on, and the resupply umbilical is a major pressure point in wartime. In the first decade of the war on terror, more than half of all U.S. casualties occurred during attacks on convoys, according to the Rand Corp. But even in the rear echelon, the concern is growing both about the vulnerability to nation-state cyber attacks on the power grid in the United States and its allies, as well as about the growing carbon footprint of generating all that electricity.