Pentagon acquisition and sustainment chief Ellen Lord provided an overview of DOD plans to develop “small, modular nuclear reactors” used by domestic installations during emergencies, Air Force Magazine reports.

Lord told reporters the power supply would be a “bridge between civil/commercial nuclear and DOD nuclear” and be adopted by U.S. expeditionary forces in the coming years. According to a recent DOD energy management and resilience report, power outages at installations at U.S. installations have incurred a financial impact of over $23.3 million. In 2018 there were 562 utility outages lasting over eight hours at U.S. military bases.

Photo by energy.gov