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The military’s interest in having small reactors stems, in part, from the risks climate change poses, including the need for a rapid response to worsening extreme weather. Once complete, it will be available to any military branch for applications ranging from powering remote bases to supporting disaster-relief missions. It plans to deliver a working version to Idaho National Laboratory in 2025 for testing, which may last about two years. Article contentīWX expects to receive final government approval for the design by early next year.
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This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Because BWX is working with the military, it’s going through a different approval process that could let its first system generate electricity as early as 2025. All of those companies are still going through the lengthy commercial regulatory process, which means their systems are unlikely to go into service before the end of the decade. Dozens of companies are designing small power plants that can be produced in factories and assembled on-site, a strategy expected to make them faster and cheaper to build. Project Pele, as the initiative is known, is at the forefront of an effort to reshape the nuclear industry. Please try again Article contentīWX Technologies Inc., a defense contractor that supplies nuclear systems to power submarines and aircraft carriers, is developing a mobile reactor for the US military that will be less than 1% the size of the massive, conventional versions that are widely used commercially today. The next issue of Financial Post Top Stories will soon be in your inbox. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder.
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