Colorado's Buckley Space Force picked to have nuclear microreactor on base

At Buckley Space Force Base, keeping the power on at all times is critical to missions like missile defense and other space force initiatives.

"Electricity is the lifeblood of the space missions here on the base," said Colonel Eamon Murray, Commander of Space Base Delta 2.

Now, they're getting that critical jolt of energy in the form of a nuclear microreactor.

On Wednesday, the Department of the Air Force announced its selection of three companies to potentially develop and operate a nuclear microreactor as part of the Advanced Nuclear Power for Installations initiative, with Buckley Space Force Base, in Aurora, being one of the locations that would receive a nuclear microreactor.

"It's going to be much smaller scale than the nuclear reactors you might be thinking of. We'll start out at one megawatt, and they are intended to be something that you can put anywhere in the world on relatively short notice," said Murray.

Radiant Industries is the company that will be working to create and install the nuclear microreactor at Buckley.

"One megawatt electric is about the equivalent of what 1,000 U.S. homes need to be powered," said Dr. Rita Baranwal, Chief Nuclear Officer at Radiant. "You don't have to worry about the weather. You don't have to worry about climate events. You don't have to worry about fueling for five years. And that's something that allows the base to operate reliably."

Baranwal says they're thrilled to be working with Buckley to share this technology and hopefully provide more nuclear microreactors in the future to communities around the globe that can benefit from the energy it can provide.

"The reactor itself is designed to be walkaway safe," she said. "In the unlikely event that something does happen, it shuts down on its own without any operator intervention."

The system has other safeguards, including over 10 layers of defense over its uranium fuel.

"This is going to give us a secure, reliable power that we can use just here on base. So in the event of crisis or conflict, we have something here that is focused on providing power to the base that we know is going to be well defended," said Murray.

Murray says they hope to keep working with the community and local leaders in Colorado to ensure transparency and educate people about the benefits this reactor can bring to their operations.  

"The success of this nuclear reactor program is absolutely reliant on the strong relationships that we have built," said Murray.

Baranwal says they expect to deliver this reactor to the base in 2028. Radiant is also anticipating coming out to Aurora sometime in the near future to talk to the community about their technology and answer any questions or concerns.