On Feb. 15 three huge U.S. Airforce C-17 transport aircraft airlifted a 5 MW microreactor and seven related modules from March Air Reserve Base in California to Hill Air Force Base in Utah, in what was dubbed Operation Windlord. While the media and Under Secretary of War for Acquisition and Sustainment Michael Duffey and Energy Secretary Chris Wright trumpeted the event as an historic first and as part of revival of U.S. nuclear energy capability, little was said about the reactor itself, such as who built it.
The reactor is a Ward 250 IV generation High Temperature Gas-Cooled Reactor (HTGR). There are only three such reactors operating in the world today, two in China and one in Japan. It is not of the Pebble Bed design but a prismatic-type helium-cooled, graphite-moderated type with a core built from stationary hexagonal graphite blocks holding TRISO fuel compacts, assuring maximum safety.
The reactor was not fully operational. It was transported without the fuel and brought to the Utah San Rafael Energy Lab (USREL) for further validation, with the plan of having it go critical in time for the Fourth of July celebrations of the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States. Located in the state’s historic coal district, USREL is owned and managed by the State of Utah.
