(a) Establishment
Not later than 90 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Defense shall commence the conduct of a program for the deployment, operation, and evaluation of a transportable nuclear microreactor in the area of responsibility of the United States Indo-Pacific Command.
(b) Designation
The program under subsection (a) shall be known as the Operational Energy Deployable Nuclear Power Program .
(c) Leadership and coordination
(1) Executive agent
The Secretary of Defense shall designate the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Installations, Energy, and Environment as the Department of Defense executive agent for carrying out the program under subsection (a) and ensuring budget accountability for such program.
(2) Coordination
In carrying out the program under subsection (a), the Assistant Secretary designated pursuant to paragraph (1) shall coordinate with—
the Commander of United States Indo-Pacific Command, who shall be responsible for validating operational requirements under the program, the demonstration of technologies to be deployed under the program, and the operational use of such technologies; and
as appropriate, the Secretary of Energy and the Chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, for the purpose of ensuring the deployment and operation of any nuclear microreactor under the program is carried out in a manner that is safe, secure, and in compliance with applicable requirements of the Department of Energy and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, respectively.
(d) Objectives
The objective of the program under subsection (a) shall be to deploy and operate, by not later than January 1, 2030, a transportable nuclear microreactor in support of distributed and expeditionary operations in contested logistics environments within the area of responsibility of the United States Indo-Pacific Command, with a priority for deployment in such an environment within the Western Pacific area.
(e) Required activities
The activities of the program under subsection (a) shall include the following:
The validation of operational requirements of the United States Indo-Pacific Command with respect to the transportable nuclear microreactor to be deployed under the program, and the integration of such nuclear microreactor with expeditionary and dispersed power architectures in the area of responsibility of such Command.
The development and implementation of a plan for the test and evaluation of such nuclear microreactor, including with respect to sustainment, safety, cybersecurity, and physical security requirements.
The conduct of joint operational demonstrations with the United States Indo-Pacific Command in connection with not fewer than one major exercise within the area of responsibility of such Command, to evaluate the deployment, integration, sustainment, survivability, and operational use of such nuclear microreactor under realistic conditions.
(f) Budget mechanism
Beginning with respect to fiscal year 2028, the Secretary of Defense shall establish a dedicated program element, or equivalent budget mechanism, for the program under subsection (a), including to support the transition of technologies under such program from demonstration to operational capability.
(g) Nuclear microreactor defined
In this section, the term nuclear microreactor means a nuclear reactor with a rated electric generating capacity of not greater than 50 megawatts.