Antares awarded Army Janus Program agreement to construct and operate nuclear microreactor power at Fort Bragg

By Staff Report, posted Aug 26, 2026 on BizFayetteville.com

Nate Jandra, a lead technician, welds a component for Antares’ power conversion system in Torrance, Calif., Aug. 25, 2026. Photo Credit: Antares

Antares announced today that it has been awarded an Other Transactions Authority agreement under the U.S. Army’s Janus Program. The U.S. Army and Defense Innovation Unit selected Antares to own, construct and operate nuclear microreactor power at Fort Bragg, N.C., in support of the Army’s energy resilience mission.

The Army, the Defense Innovation Unit and a panel of nuclear experts drawn from the Department of Energy, the national laboratories and across the Services selected Antares after rigorous technical due diligence. Evaluated against the field of competing designs, Antares’ TRISO-fueled, factory-produced microreactor emerged as one of the most mature and deployment-ready solutions.

Antares achieved first criticality of its Mark-0 reactor at Idaho National Laboratory on June 4, 2026. Its Mark-0 was the first reactor to reach that milestone under the Department of Energy’s Reactor Pilot Program. Janus extends that momentum from demonstration toward deployment, advancing the Army’s goal of operating an Army-regulated reactor on an Army installation by September 2028 under Executive Order 14299.

“We’re grateful and proud to partner with the U.S. Army and the Defense Innovation Unit on the Janus Program,” said Jordan Bramble, CEO and founder of Antares, in a press release. “Energy scarcity is constraining America’s most critical defense systems. Through Janus, Antares will deliver clean, firm, resilient power for the warfighter.”

Janus uses a milestone-based payment structure under which vendors are funded only after meeting defined technical goals, an approach that rewards execution and accelerates the delivery of resilient power to the field. Antares’ selection reflects the maturity of its TRISO-fueled, factory-produced microreactor and the operational heritage already being established through its test campaigns at Idaho National Laboratory.

“The Janus Program is about transitioning from designs and experiments to reliable commercial hardware which secures our energy independence,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army for Installations, Energy and Environment Dr. Jeff Waksman in a press release. “The Janus Program vendors were selected through a deeply rigorous evaluation on technical, financial and organizational capabilities conducted by an All-Star panel of dozens of experts from across the nation. We look forward to working alongside each team as they proceed toward successfully completing the rigorous technical milestones we’ve agreed upon.”

“Between our contracts to deploy dozens of reactors under Janus for the Army, ANPI for the Air Force, and space nuclear for the Space Force, we now have a contract value on the order of $1B that is growing rapidly,” Bramble added.

Microreactors offer a uniquely resilient power source for defense-critical infrastructure, running for years without refueling and operating independent of the commercial grid or vulnerable liquid-fuel supply chains. As warfighting increasingly depends on assets based at installations across the United States — command and control, missile defense and strategic deterrence among them — reliable, onsite power has become a mission imperative.

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