Critics Roast the Army’s Battlefield Nuclear Reactor
The Army wants a reactor to power remote military bases, but critics claim it's unlikely any design would be safe enough.
By Kyle Mizokami
Feb 25, 2019
You can see the logic behind the idea. The U.S. army envisions a kind of portable nuclear reactor that could move with units and provide all the power needs for a remote military base, eliminating the need to transport lots of fuel and maintain long supply lines to keep a base fueled up. But a prominent nuclear organization just weighed in, arguing that such a plan is a colossal mistake.
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists—the people known for their "two minutes to midnight" Doomsday Clock—argues that while such a reactor probably is feasible from a technical standpoint, it would never be safe enough to deploy on the battlefield. The risk of meltdown and radiation release would be too great ever to justify deploying the reactor into the field, the scientists say.
https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/research/a26521406/army-battlefield-nuclear-reactor/
