Army Nuclear Power Program The Army Nuclear Power Program ( ANPP ) was a program of the United States Army to develop small pressurized water and boiling water nuclear power reactors to generate electrical and space - heating energy primarily at remote , relatively inaccessible sites . The ANPP had several notable accomplishments , but ultimately it was considered to be " a solution in search of a problem . " The U . S . Army Engineer Reactors Group was the entity that managed this program and it was headquartered at Ft . Belvoir , VA . The program began in 1954 and had effectively terminated by about 1977 , with the last class of NPP operators graduating in 1977 . Work continued for some time thereafter either for decommissioning of the plants or placing them into SAFSTOR ( long term storage and monitoring before decommissioning ) . The current development of small modular reactors has led to a renewed interest in military applications . Background . There was interest in the possible application of nuclear power to land - based military needs as early as 1952 . A memo from the Secretary of Defense , dated 10 Feb 1954 , assigned the Army the responsibility for " developing nuclear power plants to supply heat and electricity at remote and relatively inaccessible military installations . " The Department of the Army ( DA ) established the Army Nuclear Power Program and assigned it to the Corps of Engineers . The Atomic Energy Act of 1954 made the Atomic Energy Commission responsible for R & D in the nuclear field , so that the ANPP then became a joint interagency ' activity ' of the DA and the AEC . When the Atomic Energy Act was revised in 1954 , Paragraph 91b authorized the Department of Defense to obtain special nuclear material for use in defense utilization facilities . The focus of the Army Nuclear Power Program was on power production facilities while the Naval Reactors Program concentrated on nuclear propulsion for submarines and ships . On 9 April 1954 the Chief of Engineers established the US Army Engineer Reactors Group to perform the missions assigned by DA . Essentially , these missions were to : In a Department of the Army Approved Qualitative Materiel Development Objective for Nuclear Power Plants , dated 7 January 1965 , these objectives were stated for the program : The AEC ultimately concluded that the probability of achieving the objectives of the Army Nuclear Power Program in a timely manner and at a reasonable cost was not high enough to justify continued funding of its portion of projects to develop small , stationary , and mobile reactors . Cutbacks in military funding for long - range research and development because of the Vietnam War led the AEC to phase out its support of the program in 1966 . The costs of developing and producing compact nuclear power plants were simply so high that they could be justified only if the reactor had a unique capability and filled a clearly defined objective backed by DOD . After that , the Army ' s participation in nuclear power plant research and development efforts steadily declined and eventually stopped altogether . List of ANPP plants . Eight reactors / plants were constructed . In this list MWe = megawatts electrical ; kWe = kilowatts electrical . Any power plant , nuclear or otherwise , has an efficiency with which thermal energy can be converted to electrical energy . This thermodynamic efficiency is usually in the 30 - 40 % range , but for the ANPP reactors was , for various reasons , more often about 20 % . Also , the electrical energy available outside the plant is limited by ( 1 ) the need in some designs to extract steam for space heating , and ( 2 ) in all cases the need to supply electrical power to the plant itself ( station service ) ; in other words , " It takes electricity to make electricity . " Due to the requirement for a small physical size , all these reactors other than the MH - 1A used highly enriched uranium ( HEU ) . The MH - 1A had more space to work with , and more weight - carrying capacity , so this was a low - enrichment reactor ; i . e . , larger and heavier . The MH - 1A was briefly considered for use in Vietnam , but the idea of " anything " nuclear in Vietnam was quickly rejected by the State Department . The plants are listed in order of their initial criticality . See the gallery of photos in the next section . Sources for this data include the only known book on the ANPP , by Suid , and a DOE document . The PM - 3A ( Portable , Medium - power , 3rd generation ) was a plant installed to provide power for the McMurdo Base in Antarctica . During the 1970 to 1971 winter , it achieved a world - record power run . It was one of the first shore - based power plants to use solid - state equipment . The PM - 3A was not operated by the Army , but was under the NAVFAC ( Naval Facilities Engineering Command " Sea Bees " ) , shore - based power division of the US Navy . Although the majority of the personnel were Navy , the PM - 3A was a tri - service stationing . For 1970 - 1971 , there was an Army Sergeant and an Air Force Sergeant stationed with the crew . The plant was air - cooled with the condensers and fan units running glycol . Waste heat was also used for desalination using vacuum flash distillation . The reactor was located in buried tanks in the ground . After decommissioning , the plant was cut into pieces and transported to the US for burial . The soil surrounding the tanks had become radioactive ; so it was also removed and transported to Port Hueneme Naval Base , California , where it was incorporated into asphalt pavement . Key to the codes : Of the eight built , six produced operationally useful power for an extended period . Many of the designs were based on United States Naval reactor s , which were proven compact reactor designs . ANPP significant accomplishments . References for this list include the DOE document , the Suid book , and the Briefing Book . Nuclear power plant operator training . The Nuclear Power Plant Operator Course ( NPPOC ) was conducted at Ft . Belvoir . Applicants for the program were enlisted men who had to commit to serving a minimum of two years after completion of training . The requirements for admission to the NPPOC included aptitude test scores at least as stringent as those required for admission to Officer Candidate School . Over 1 , 000 Nuclear Power Plant operators were licensed between the years 1958 through 1977 . The NPPOC was an intense and academically challenging year - long course . The training was in three phases of four months each : ( 1 ) Academic ; ( 2 ) Operator ; ( 3 ) Specialty . Academic phase was eight hours per day of classroom work on Electrical , Mechanical , Nuclear Engineering . Operator phase was at the SM - 1 , and was shift work both on the " floor " of the plant ( i . e . , as an " Equipment Operator " ) and in the control room ( Control Room Operator ) . Specialty phase was one of Mechanical , Electrical , Instrumentation , or Health Physics / Plant Chemistry . The plants were maintained by the operator personnel , trained in these plant maintenance specialties . On graduation from the NPPOC , an individual was " licensed to learn " how to operate a nuclear power plant . A series of badges worn on uniforms designated the individual ' s progress through the training program . Nuclear - powered fuel depot . This material is extracted from an article in Army Logistician It is also discussed in the Briefing Book , Section III - C . Although the nuclear - powered fuel depot was never taken beyond this point , the concept was technically sound but to this day remains too expensive to realize , even though fuel cell technology has advanced significantly since the suspension of the program . However , there remains the possibility that a similar approach might be used in the coming decades , as fuel cells become more proven and oil becomes more expensive .