Joint Base San Antonio, the U.S. Department of Defense’s largest joint installation, is in line to host a prototype nuclear microreactor under a new federal arrangement that would put commercial atomic power on Texas soil for the first time.
The Department of the Air Force and the Defense Innovation Unit selected Antares to propose the deployment of its R1 microreactor at the base under the Advanced Nuclear Power for Installations program. Under the initiative, Antares would be responsible for the siting, licensing, construction, operation and decommissioning of the base’s reactors. The goal is to have them online by 2029 or earlier.
According to the US Department of Energy, the base was chosen because of its utility infrastructure, land availability and mission requirements. It occupies more than 46,000 acres with 11 operating locations within a 50-mile radius of San Antonio. The complex also has a plant replacement value of approximately $10.3 billion and more than 8,000 operations and support personnel.
The foundation has pursued network independence for nearly a decade. In 2018, the Defense Logistics Agency awarded it a $132.1 million, 22-year energy savings performance contract executed by Ameresco, which built an island-capable microgrid that integrated 18.5 MW of solar generation and 4 MW/8 MWh of battery storage at five facilities, according to DOE and the company. The proposed microreactor would add a nuclear power source to this existing infrastructure.
By Brig. Gen. Randy Oakland, 502nd Air Base Wing and Joint Base Wing commander, the selection reflects a broader strategic focus. “Energy resilience is imperative to sustain operations,” he said. “If selected as a site under this initiative, the resiliency of Joint Base San Antonio would take a tangible step forward in ensuring reliable support for its many important missions.”
Antares CEO and founder Jordan Bramble said the collaboration with Joint Base San Antonio underscores the company’s defense focus. “We built this company to provide resilient power for missions like this.”
The R1 is a unit cooled by a sodium heat pipe and powered by tristructural isotropic fuel (TRISO). According to Antares, the system does not require connection to the commercial power grid or specialized infrastructure and can operate for years between refills.
Antares plans to test a first reactor to produce electricity in 2027, with initial production deployments for defense and space customers planned for 2028, a year before the proposed joint base deployment. Fuel manufacturing has been underway at BWX Technologies since October 2025.
The announcement is one of a recent selection of advanced nuclear power for facilities. The Air Force announced April 8 that Buckley Air Force Base in Colorado and Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana were also identified as candidate sites, with vendor pairings for those facilities still pending and deployment expected to be in 2030 or earlier, according to the service.
The Advanced Nuclear Power for Installations program is separate from an Air Force stand-alone microreactor pilot at Eielson AFB in Alaska and the U.S. military’s parallel Janus program, which aims to deploy microreactors at domestic military installations by 2030, according to the American Nuclear Society’s Nuclear Newswire.
