AHC/WI: More Prominent United States Army Nuclear Power Program

Delta Force

Banned
The United States Army Nuclear Power Program ran from the early 1950s to the late 1970s. It focused on smaller nuclear reactors than the United States Navy program, intended primarily for providing heat and/or power to remote Army installations and creating synthetic fuel for vehicles. It was never as prominent as its Navy counterpart, but it seems it could have also done some things for commercial development. While the Navy focused primarily on using large reactors to generate electricity, the Army could have focused on small modular reactors and their use for providing heat, fuel, and desalinization.

Could an Army analogue to Rickover have made the program more prominent, perhaps due to its association with the Army Corps of Engineers and its power generation tasks? Could the Army program have helped with the development of small modular reactors, perhaps even having some units provide heat, fuel, and/or water to remote communities during tests?
 
Could an Army analogue to Rickover have made the program more prominent, perhaps due to its association with the Army Corps of Engineers and its power generation tasks? Could the Army program have helped with the development of small modular reactors, perhaps even having some units provide heat, fuel, and/or water to remote communities during tests?
The answers are: yes and yes, but neither idea have been exploited. Yet.

I served 2 tours at SM-1A site Ft. Greely, Alaska https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Greely , but long after the old power plant was deactivated...too bad in some respects as power consumption has gone up considerably through the years, and at great expense the local power grid has necessarily been expanded.

On occasion, usually when the price of oil peaks, an article pops up in local news concerning the feasibility of small nuclear plants supplying power to remote Alaskan communities, so the idea isn't completely dead.

Another item to note are the recurring, but unfounded allegations of nuclear contamination at the Ft. Greely site. After multiple extensive and expensive studies, no health hazard has been discovered.
 

Delta Force

Banned
The answers are: yes and yes, but neither idea have been exploited. Yet.

I served 2 tours at SM-1A site Ft. Greely, Alaska https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Greely , but long after the old power plant was deactivated...too bad in some respects as power consumption has gone up considerably through the years, and at great expense the local power grid has necessarily been expanded.

On occasion, usually when the price of oil peaks, an article pops up in local news concerning the feasibility of small nuclear plants supplying power to remote Alaskan communities, so the idea isn't completely dead.

Another item to note are the recurring, but unfounded allegations of nuclear contamination at the Ft. Greely site. After multiple extensive and expensive studies, no health hazard has been discovered.

It's interesting that the Army and AEC didn't look more into using small nuclear reactors in Alaska and elsewhere. The Army program was looking into very small modular nuclear reactors that would be ideal for those applications.
 
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