DIU evaluating industry bids to deliver nuclear power source for military installations

SAN DIEGO -- The Defense Innovation Unit is in the process of evaluating vendor proposals to deliver a nuclear power source for military installations, according to DIU energy portfolio Director Andrew Higier.

The “nuclear power for installation project” is an ongoing effort enabled by a recently heightened focus on nuclear technology by industry, Higier said today at the West 2025 conference.

“It's a project that, if you would have asked me just a few years ago, ‘Is DIU going to do a nuclear project?’ I would have said, ‘No,’ because the private sector is not doing that,” he said. “But here we are a few years later, and there's dozens of companies and even more [venture capitalists] investing in that technology, and because of that we were able to quickly start a nuclear project.”

DIU posted two solicitations in June 2024 seeking commercial solutions to address Navy and Army energy resiliency needs.

The Army sought to “to prototype on-site micro-reactor nuclear power plant(s) to address its energy resilience needs through the Advanced Nuclear Power for Installations (ANPI) program to provide electricity generation and distribution,” according to its notice.

Such technology “didn’t exist" at the time, Higier added. "Thanks to the private sector, it does exist now, or it will soon. And so we put out a solicitation, and that's undergoing selection right now.”