The Pentagon and the Department of Energy completed the first-ever airlift of a nuclear microreactor on February 15, flying a 5-megawatt reactor built by startup Valar Atomics nearly 700 miles from March Air Reserve Base in California to Hill Air Force Base in Utah.
The operation, designated “Operation Windlord,” transported the Ward 250 reactor — disassembled into eight modules and loaded without nuclear fuel — aboard three C-17 Globemaster III aircraft flown by the 62nd Airlift Wing, the only US Air Force unit certified to transport nuclear weapons.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright, Under Secretary of Defense Michael Duffey, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, and Sen. John Curtis (R-Utah) traveled aboard the flight, along with Isaiah Taylor, the 26-year-old founder of Valar Atomics, and most of the company’s employees.
“Today is history,” Wright said before takeoff. “A multi-megawatt, next-generation nuclear power plant is loaded in the C-17 behind us.” At a press conference following the landing, Cox added: “There are moments in history when technologies redefine what is possible in a nation. Advanced nuclear for national security belongs in that lineage.”
The Ward 250 can power approximately 5,000 homes. It is a High-Temperature Gas-Cooled Reactor (HTGR) that runs on TRISO fuel — uranium kernels encased in ceramic and carbon layers — cooled by helium gas, a design favored for its modular construction and passive safety properties.
Valar was founded in El Segundo, California in 2023 and has raised approximately $130 million to advance the platform.
The reactor will move by ground to the Utah San Rafael Energy Lab in Orangeville for testing — a facility central to Gov. Cox’s “Operation Gigawatt” initiative to make Utah a hub for advanced nuclear manufacturing.
Officials expect the Ward 250 to reach criticality by July 4, 2026, the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, as required by Presidential Executive Order 14301.
Valar was one of 11 companies the DOE selected in June 2025 for its Nuclear Reactor Pilot Program and was separately chosen in September 2025 for the Fuel Line Pilot Program, which establishes a domestic nuclear fuel supply chain. The company plans to sell power on a test basis in 2027 before moving to full commercial operations in 2028.
Duffey framed the exercise as a readiness test with long-term strategic implications. “Powering next generation warfare will require us to move faster than our adversaries,” he said. The military also views mobile reactors as a fix for power vulnerabilities — remote bases, particularly in Alaska, depend on long, expensive fuel supply chains, and domestic grid reliance has been flagged as a strategic liability.
Officials added that the Ward 250 can be airlifted to any location with a 3,500-foot runway. The Trump administration has also tied the nuclear push to AI and data center demand, with four executive orders signed in May 2025 directing agencies to expand nuclear deployment for national security infrastructure and commercial industries.
Not everyone viewed the exercise as a milestone. Edwin Lyman, director of nuclear power safety at the Union of Concerned Scientists, called the flight “a dog-and-pony show” that proved only the military’s ability to ship heavy equipment. “It doesn’t answer any questions about whether the project is feasible, economic, workable or safe — for the military and the public,” he said.
Lyman added that the administration has yet to make a safety case for transporting fueled reactors and that nuclear waste disposal remains unresolved.
Trump also signed executive orders transferring some reactor approval authority away from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission — which has governed US nuclear safety for five decades — to the Energy Secretary directly, a regulatory shift critics say bypasses established safety oversight.
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