HWBRIEF
Antares, which just achieved a self sustaining nuclear chain reaction under a Trump era DOE pilot, signed a multi year fuel deal with Centrus to support reactor deployments at Fort Bragg, Joint Base San Antonio, and a Space Force award.
The Pentagon wants a small nuclear reactor running at Fort Bragg by 30 September 2028. Antares, a small-reactor startup that became the first to hit first criticality under a Trump-era Department of Energy pilot, just signed a multi-year fuel contract that makes that clock answerable on the supply side.
The deal pairs Antares, which builds modular transportable reactors, with Centrus, which produces high-assay low-enriched uranium at its American Centrifuge Plant in Piketon, Ohio. That fuel, abbreviated HALEU, is a specialized nuclear fuel that advanced compact reactors need and that the United States only recently began producing at commercial scale.
In August, the Army picked Antares as one of five microreactor developers to deploy at Department of War installations under the Janus programme, which stems from a Trump executive order signed in May 2025. The 2028 deadline is the Army's clock. Antares also won a slot under the Air Force's Advanced Nuclear Power for Installations programme at Joint Base San Antonio, plus a Space Force strategic breakthrough award for a space reactor.
Antares 0, the company's demonstration unit, achieved criticality in June. Its initial fuel came from BWX Technologies; the Centrus contract covers the longer-term pipeline.
Neither company disclosed contract length, fuel volume, or dollar value.