Making history this Wattage Wednesday! The U.S. Department of Defense is developing a game-changing transportable microreactor under Project Pele to meet the military's growing need for reliable, clean energy in remote or isolated locations. The Strategic Capabilities Office (SCO) is working with BWX Technologies to deliver a 1-5 MWe high-temperature gas-cooled reactor prototype to Idaho National Laboratory for testing in 2025. Jeff Waksman, a program manager at SCO, explained that the DOD sees microreactors as a way to provide power in challenging environments while also reducing reliance on fossil fuels for both climate and strategic reasons. The exhaust from the Pele reactor is simply hot air, making it suitable for various applications like heating, desalination, and even synthetic fuel production. Project Pele's modular design, using standard shipping containers, allows for easy transport and rapid deployment. The self-contained reactor module houses all the radioactive compo...