Nuclear Goes to Boot Camp

The US Army just became nuclear energy’s most unlikely venture capitalist.

Yesterday, the Army unveiled the Janus Program, a plan to install 18 microreactors across nine military bases by 2028.

It seems once again the US government is becoming deeply entangled in private markets.

Not through subsidies or tax breaks, but through direct military contracts.

It’s a similar story to what we’ve seen in critical minerals, which lit a fire under our mining juniors. Only this time, they’re guaranteeing demand for nuclear startups that don’t even have working products.

Welcome to the new age of industrial policy, the invisible hand has become a clenched fist.

As the race with China intensifies, the Trump administration has decided the best way to jumpstart America’s nuclear renaissance is to have the military become the anchor customer.

Back to the future

The Janus Program isn’t about the nuclear of yesteryear.

These microreactors generate less than 20 megawatts each, only enough to power a small town.

They’re designed to be transportable by ship or aircraft and run for years, potentially decades, without refuelling.

Jeff Waksman, who’ll lead the project, outlined the plan. Private companies will own and operate these reactors, not the military.

The Army provides the sites and demand. The startups provide the technology.

It’s a clever workaround to decades of regulatory gridlock that’s strangled civilian nuclear projects in the West.

But this isn’t really about powering army bases.

It’s a new strategy for America’s nuclear comeback, wrapped in military fatigues.

Consider the context: China currently has 31 reactors under construction, around half the global total. It plans 40 more in the next decade.

Meanwhile, the US hasn’t completed a new reactor project on time or budget in living memory.

Take the recently completed Vogtle reactors in Georgia. Initially pencilled to cost US$14 billion.

Final tab: US$35 billion after 11 years of construction. And that was just an add-on.

Two similar reactors planned in the South were scrapped because of similar delays and cost overruns.

Unlike Asia, the West has lost a generation of nuclear engineering talent. Labour productivity and red tape have created a mire that leaves us poorer.

A 2020 MIT study found that 72% of nuclear building cost overruns were related to engineering, administration, and construction services.

While in recent builds, labour productivity was thirteen times lower than expected.

It noted that this trend began in force after the Three Mile Island accident. New regulations around design and structure thickness often drove the bulk of additional costs.

This is where the hope of small and micro-reactors lies.

They aim to sidestep the red tape and leapfrog the technology using a modular approach.

God knows the demand is there.

AI data centres are sprouting like mushrooms after rain, each demanding city-sized amounts of power.

JP Morgan estimates data centre spending will contribute 10–20 basis points to US economic growth next year.

In a quiet year, that’s the equivalent of all other commercial buildings constructed.

Microsoft, Meta, and OpenAI are all scrambling for nuclear deals. But who wants to bet billions on unproven reactor designs with no track record?

Enter the US military, the stand-in de-risking mechanism.

Follow the Money

The investment landscape has shifted in recent years.

Since 2021, venture capital has poured US$2.5 billion into next-generation nuclear technology. Before that? Most years saw investment ‘hovering near zero,’ according to VC company, PitchBook.

Now Peter Thiel, Sam Altman, and Bill Gates are all in.

So, who are some of these smaller nuclear players?

On the public side, you have companies like:

• Oklo [NYSE:OKLO], up a casual 1,600+% this past year
• NuScale Power Corp [NYSE:SMR], up 228% in the same period
• BWX Technologies [NYSE:BWXT], up 70% in that time, already has a project with the Department of Defense (DoD)
• Terra Innovatum [NASDAQ:NKLR], listed last week after a Texas ‘blank check’ SPAC acquired it.
• Hadron Energy, is next in line for IPO this month

On the private side, many more are popping up with the new funding.

Valar Atomics, a two-year-old startup, is planning to bid on Janus contracts.

Another is Standard Nuclear in Tennessee, whose employees worked eight months without pay because they believed in their technology so strongly.

One manager sold the surrounding acres of his home to keep working. Now, the Army has tapped them to make new fuel.

For Australian investors, I believe fuel is where the focus should be.

The US currently has no significant commercial source of enriched uranium.

Russia controls half the global market and a quarter of America’s supply.

Australian uranium miners could be looking at their biggest opportunity in decades.

Reality Check

Let’s pump the brakes for a moment.

So far small and micro-reactors remain highly speculative. Not a single US company has completed a small modular reactor. China only has one.

The US nuclear watchdog remains a bureaucratic nightmare. Trump’s executive orders aim to bypass some regulations by putting reactors on federal land, but this is still untested territory.

Critics rightly point out these reactors don’t produce enough energy to justify their expense. The hope is to standardise the production eventually.

But the 2028 timeline? Ambitious is being generous.

Venture capitalist Ross Fubini recently reviewed 15 nuclear startups. He said none showed promise of deploying technology before running out of money.

But despite the challenges and scepticism, this time does feel different.

The military-industrial complex is morphing into a military-energy/AI complex.

When the Pentagon becomes your first customer, regulatory barriers have a funny way of disappearing.

The Janus Program won’t solve America’s energy crisis. But it might give nuclear startups the breathing room and credibility they need to scale.

For Australia, sitting on 28% of the world’s uranium reserves, this nuclear renaissance couldn’t come at a better time.

The US Army just placed a massive bet that atoms could power the future.

Given the alternatives, it might be their smartest gamble in years.

To be fair, this isn’t the first time we’ve seen the Army gamble in power. What’s been called ‘China’s latest super fuel’ was actually taken straight from a US war lab.

Our commodities expert, James Cooper, thinks this could be the driving force behind a new breed of ASX stocks surging.