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13 Apr 22. DoD to Build Project Pele Mobile Microreactor and Perform Demonstration at Idaho National Laboratory. The Department of Defense’s Strategic Capabilities Office (SCO) released a Record of Decision (ROD) for Project Pele, a program intended to design, build, and demonstrate a mobile microreactor. SCO will construct an inherently safe by design nuclear microreactor capable of being transported by the DoD and able to deliver 1-5 MegaWatts of electrical power for a minimum of three years of full power operation. This reactor will be assembled and initially operated at Idaho National Laboratory (INL), and will be the first electricity-generating Generation IV nuclear reactor built in the United States. The first electricity-generating Generation IV nuclear reactor demonstrated in the world was the HTR-PM, a Chinese reactor, which first reached criticality in September 2021.
“Thanks to the tireless work of the contract teams,the valuable input from local stakeholders, and the talented and experienced NEPA technical support teams at the Department of Energy and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, we are confident that an inherently safe by design mobile microreactor can be constructed and demonstrated safely at Idaho National Laboratory,” said Dr. Jeff Waksman, Project Pele program manager.
“Advanced nuclear power has the potential to be a strategic game-changer for the United States, both for the DoD and for the commercial sector. For it to be adopted, it must first be successfully demonstrated under real world operating conditions.”
In March 2020, Project Pele announced a Notice of Intent (NOI) to conduct an environmental analysis in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). At the same time, SCO kicked off a two-year microreactor design competition. The NEPA was conducted such that it would envelope in scope all possible reactor designs allowed under Pele’s technical requirements.
Today, SCO Director Jay Dryer released a ROD on construction and testing drawn from the analysis performed within a Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS), published in the Federal Register. The Record of Decision and the Environmental Impact Statement, as well as supporting documentation, are available online at https://www.MobileMicroReactorEIS.com.
SCO is considering engineering designs developed by two competing teams: BWXT Advanced Technologies, LLC, Lynchburg, Virginia; and X-energy, LLC, Greenbelt, Maryland. SCO has full confidence that both teams have developed reactor designs which can be constructed to meet SCO’s minimum technical requirements. However, only one design will be selected and announced later this spring.
The DoD uses approximately 30 terawatt-hours of electricity per year and more than 10 million gallons of fuel per day — levels that are only expected to increase due to anticipated electrification of the non-tactical vehicle fleet and maturation of future energy-intensive capabilities. A safe, small, transportable nuclear reactor would address this growing demand with a resilient, carbon-free energy source that would not add to the DoD’s fuel needs, while supporting mission-critical operations in remote and austere environments.
As a High-Temperature Gas Reactor using High-Assay Low Enriched Uranium (HALEU) Tristructural Isotropic (TRISO) fuel, Project Pele is a fourth-generation nuclear reactor, which can serve as a pathfinder for commercial adoption of such technologies, thereby reducing the nation’s carbon emissions and providing new tools for disaster relief and critical infrastructure support.
Project Pele is a whole-of-government effort, with critical expertise provided by the Department of Energy, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and the National Nuclear Security Administration.
The Pele reactor is to be a single prototype, which will be demonstrated only within the United States, under the safety oversight of the Department of Energy. A decision by the DoD on whether or not to transition the technology and to use it operationally will be made at a future date.
“The DoD has a long history of driving American innovation, with nuclear power being one of many prominent examples,” said Mr. Jay Dryer, SCO Director. “Project Pele is an exciting opportunity to advance energy resilience and reduce carbon emissions while also helping to shape safety and nonproliferation standards for advanced reactors around the world.” (Source: US DoD)
13 Apr 22. Affinity Flying Training Services supports Sustainable Aviation Pathfinder for UK MoD. Affinity Flying Training Services is supporting the UK Ministry of Defence on a series of battery-powered flights to assess environmentally friendly alternatives for future military flying in a Sustainable Aviation Pathfinder. Affinity Flying Training Services is already a proven provider of innovative procurement and maintenance services across three sites in the UK, supporting the progression of pilots through flying training for the UK Military Flying Training System (UKMFTS).
The concept of trialling zero-emissions aircraft, and the subsequent Pathfinder, was proposed to the Ministry of Defence by Affinity, a joint venture between Elbit Systems UK and KBR. The introduction of this Pathfinder demonstrates the company’s commitment to providing innovative solutions for the UK Armed Forces and addressing the needs of the future. This Pathfinder will also bolster the company’s existing contribution to the RAF, having delivered over 38,000 flying hours at RAF Cranwell, RAF Barkston Heath and RAF Valley since 2016.
In line with the Ministry of Defence’s ‘green’ transformation, the flights aim to help the Royal Air Force assess the technology of electric aircraft, determine their potential for use in military service and realise the Net Zero ambitions of the service’s ASTRA campaign.
The Pathfinder has run for around 4 months in total, using a fully CAA-certified two-seater pilot training aircraft from Pipistrel, the Velis Electro. Affinity arranged provision of the aircraft through its partner, Fly About Aviation, and subsequent maintenance in partnership with Eastern Airways.
Affinity Managing Director Iain Chalmers commented:
“Affinity and its shareholders are proud and excited to be a part of this Sustainable Aviation Pathfinder, and in doing so further support the Royal Air Force and UK MOD move closer to their Net Zero Targets. It is our ambition to continue to promote innovation and sustainability in our work in both the military and government spheres in which we operate.”
12 Apr 22. Power struggle: How the US Army is tackling the logistics of battlefield electricity. In generations past, infantry officers’ primary needs were ammunition, an extra pair of dry socks and enough water in the field. But soldiers today need vast stores of power just to manage daily operations, from the batteries that power the Samsung-based Nett Warrior system that connects soldiers to the electricity that keeps command posts and operations centers running. Those needs are set to grow within the next decade as the Army moves toward using electric vehicles on the battlefield and weighs a variety of power sources for its facilities and bases. After all, the Army’s new climate strategy imagines a battlefield that depends less on fuel and more on electricity. It envisions the service fielding hybrid electric tactical vehicles by 2035 and moving to all-electric tactical vehicles by 2050. To get there, the Army is preparing its first-ever operational energy strategy, which is expected by the end of the year. The plan focuses on preparing the service to use a range of energy sources, from renewables to fossil fuels to electricity from host nation power grids — changes that could herald dramatic shifts in how the Army spends its multibillion-dollar procurement and research budgets. In other words, the service wants to map out how it manages and distributes power in operations across the battlefield and is considering a variety of technology that could strengthen that logistics tail — from longer-lasting, lighter batteries to trailer-sized chargers to microgrids.
Army Secretary Christine Wormuth told Defense News that as the service focuses on its ambitious modernization efforts and moves to implement its climate strategy, the logistics and sustainment piece “is often under attended to.”
There is a “strong impetus,” she said, to “put a lot of the resources toward the pointy end of the spear and forget what it takes to feed all of that.”
Energy sources
The operational energy strategy is meant to assess both the individual soldier and energy users ranging from weapons to field kitchens.
To help build the needed infrastructure, the Army is rapidly developing technology that would work toward a widely electrified battlefield.
The service is already fielding generators that provide better fuel efficiency, system reliability and parts interoperability as compared to diesel generators, according to Elise Joseph, who focuses on energy at Army Futures Command.
In its climate strategy, the Army calls for the creation of a more flexible power source by deploying generators with mobile microgrid systems paired with battery storage. The service wants to make this capability usable on the battlefield, Joseph said.
The Army’s C5ISR Center is also working on mobile microgrids, including turning a vehicle into its own microgrid that can then charge soldier batteries in the field. The center is developing “on-soldier power infrastructure” as well as experimenting with wearable solar panels and portable fuel cells. It also entertained the concept of a backpack that harnesses energy from the bouncing created by a moving soldier wearing it. These advances would create new, mobile power sources on the battlefield.
Another area of focus is battery standardization, as the abundance of batteries creates a significant logistics issue, Joseph told Defense News.
“There are so many different kinds of batteries, and so you need individual chargers for each of those, and you’ve got soldiers carrying around all these batteries,” she said. “We are considering that in development and trying to push toward some standard form factors.”
The directorate hopes to make batteries quicker to recharge and longer lasting between charges, she said.
The Army Applications Laboratory, which falls under the purview of Army Futures Command, is wrapping up an eight-week effort with industry focused on sustainment technologies for expeditionary power, according to Lt. Col. Brian Cook, the lab’s network lead.
The program specifically examined how to get power to a soldier in an austere environment from four different angles: power management, distribution, generation and sustainment.
More than 70 companies applied, and the Army selected four to participate: Epirus, Resonant Link, Spark Thermionics and Xerion Advanced Battery. Those four worked with Army officials and soldiers to discuss the service’s needs for the future battlefield and to develop ways to solve those power challenges.
A similar program last year produced a tactical battlefield recharging concept from a Colorado-based company, Cook noted. The recharger was the size of a shipping container, which roughly equates to a small room that can fit on the back of a semitrailer truck.
“We’re trying to get that down into smaller form factors so that you can attach it to different ground-based platforms,” he said.
Powering the soldier
The service also wants to ensure soldiers have the power to run key systems. Col. Denny Dresch, the product manager for ground soldier systems at Program Executive Office Soldier, said troops need reliable power to use existing equipment like the Nett Warrior as well as forthcoming systems like the Integrated Visual Augmentation System, considered a next-generation situational awareness tool.
“We’ve seen the demands on the soldier [are] just going to continue in the future,” he told Defense News.
Nett Warrior, for instance, relies on battery power either through the radio battery into which it plugs or an external battery called the conformal wearable battery. The CWB gives a soldier 18-24 hours of power, according to Dresch. That’s much more than the six to eight hours provided on the radio battery.
The batteries are the size of a small notebook and weigh about 2.5 pounds.
“As you look at the battlefield of tomorrow and you look at what’s going on [with] the soldier, there’s going to be more computational power, there’s going to be more devices that we plug into him or her, and all that’s going to require more power,” Dresch said.
His team is considering how to improve lithium ion-based batteries; one option is using silicon anode technology, a move now under evaluation within the Army’s science and technology branch, he said.
The Army has also developed a universal battery charger, mounted and integrated within a vehicle’s power system so CWBs can charge on the go, Dresch said.
He’s also pursuing the Power on the Move program, meant to equip troop compartments in Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicles or Stryker combat vehicles with charging stations. The capability was evaluated on a Bradley at California’s Camp Roberts in September; the Army plans to try it with a Stryker in August at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state.
Dresch said the Army is asking industry, when developing systems, to focus on products that use less energy.
“We are going to run into a problem eventually where physics, science and math can only go so far in terms of how good the battery technologies are at this time and place,” he said. “It’s on our industry partners that are bringing those capabilities to our warfighters to also be very conscious of the energy draw that they’re placing on us.”
The role of industry
With the Army’s climate plan now public, the defense and energy sectors are seeking business opportunities.
Oshkosh recently announced it developed a hybrid version of the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle. And companies developing microgrids — like Schneider Electric, which built one that powers Marine Corps Air Station Miramar — are showing interest in the Army’s push to use the technology at installations and in the field.
Plasan North America has been pitching an All-Terrain Electric Mission Module — or ATeMM — which John Cavedo, its president, says is a single platform that solves a variety of power capability and logistics issues.
The capability looks like a trailer, but instead of sucking power from the vehicle towing it, the module provides power, essentially converting the attached vehicle into a hybrid one. The system can also supplement generator power at command posts and act as a mass mobile charging station for conformal wearable batteries.
The Army invited Plasan to demonstrate the ATeMM as a platoon battery recharger at the Army Expeditionary Warrior Experiment at Fort Benning, Georgia, which wrapped up in March.
But without an Army document that addresses the logistics of operational energy and provides clear direction for industry, the path forward for the technology is murky, Cavedo said. The Army hasn’t “conceived of taking all these different capabilities and putting them into one package because of the way that it writes requirements,” he argued.
An infantry soldier’s primary focus was once ammunition, dry socks and enough water to survive in the field. But today there’s a need for vast stores of power just to manage daily operations. (Charlie Riedel/AP)
Some industry executives in recent years have expressed concern the Army is unprepared to depend on electric power without more extensive infrastructure.
Sharon Burke, who served in the Obama administration as assistant secretary of defense for operational energy and is now president of consultancy Ecospherics, said she’s seeing evidence that industry recognizes the Army’s interest in different energy options. At the Association of the U.S. Army’s annual conference last year, she noticed lithium-ion batteries throughout the exhibit floor.
“You wouldn’t have seen that kind of equipment at AUSA if those vendors didn’t think that there was an interest,” Burke said. “You definitely see things that people are prospecting, and they’re just wrong. But in this case, I don’t think they’re wrong.”
The Army is also weighing whether commercial technology provides a path forward. Several years ago, the service’s Combat Capabilities Development Command’s Ground Vehicle Systems Center watched as commercial carmakers began investing in electrification.
The command’s power and energy team set up a series of electrification forums across the United States, asking companies whether they were focused on how to recharge in an austere environment, said Michael Cadieux, the center’s director.
“Industry didn’t raise their hand. They weren’t saying, ‘I’m thinking about it,’ ” he told Defense News in a recent interview. But “roughly over the last nine months, we’ve seen a significant shift.”
Industry is “coming to the table and engaging with us, saying … they have something that [they] think is a unique product or capability and it starts to address or get at tactical recharging.”
Staff with the U.S. Army Research Engineering and Development Command applied digitization, software and analytics to help soldiers better manage the Army’s tactical microgrid. (RDECOM)
Cadieux said the shift is likely a result of increasing interest in and sales of electric vehicles in the United States. At the same time, more companies are working on battery chemistry and density, he noted, which will affect how vehicles charge.
The Army is already incorporating anti-idle capability, Cadieux said, which saves power on the battlefield and enables vehicles to run systems like communications equipment without burning fuel.
Ground Vehicle Systems Center this month demonstrated its Tactical Vehicle Electrification Kit on a Joint Light Tactical Vehicle, aiming to generate 20% fuel savings with a 50% reduced engine run time. According to a recent statement by the center, the kit allows the vehicle to run vital systems without the engine.
But battery energy density and tactical recharging remain challenging when it comes to moving toward electric vehicles for the service.
“When you get to certain hybrid configurations, you don’t have to solve that gap,” Cadieux said. “Or it’s not as big of a gap.”
At Project Convergence this fall, the Army’s annual exercise for experimenting with emerging and future capabilities, hybrid power prototypes for ground vehicles will likely attend. Also likely to make an appearance are hybrid generators that can go into quiet mode as well as different battery solutions.
Burke acknowledged there is already equipment in the field that uses electric power, but “it does require a larger concept of operations” to broadly adopt this kind of technology.
“When you are talking about the vision that’s in the Army climate strategy, that’s a very different kind of battlefield in 20 years or 30 years now,” she said. “They are not there yet.” (Source: Defense News)
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