Small nuclear reactors move forward. Will Maryland catch up?

Karl Hille, The Baltimore Sun on Feb 18, 2026

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BALTIMORE — Small, possibly portable, nuclear reactors that can’t melt down are moving toward reality in the United States, with what may be the first two coming online or beginning construction this year.

The US Army just transported its first small reactor for testing, and the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, is working on what could be the nation’s first private-sector microreactor. Maryland, however, has not yet moved to develop new nuclear power capacity.

Small, modular nuclear reactors provide up to 300 MW of clean electricity. In comparison, Constellation Energy’s Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant in Lusby, Maryland, operates two 2,737 MW reactors. Due to their construction and small scale, small reactors will not malfunction or melt down even if left unattended, industry experts say.

“Nuclear is still the safest and cleanest energy technology,” James Walker, CEO of the Canadian company, NANO Nuclear Technology, told The Baltimore Sun, “and with small modular reactors, the meltdown possibility is completely eliminated because of the fuel type.”

NANO’s technology replaces solid fuel rods with billions of tiny uranium pellets, Walker said. Each pellet is coated with silicon carbide shielding that melts at a higher temperature than the fuel.

The nascent micro-reactor industry has been caught in a chicken-and-egg scenario, he said. Regulators want to see proven safety records, while the industry is prepared with designs, but no operating reactors to demonstrate safety.

That may be changing.

The US Army transported a 5 MW reactor from California to Utah on Feb. 15 in a C-17. The reactor is intended to improve the military’s energy resiliency, according to the Army Technology news site.

“The objective is an underrated one in a threat landscape that values lethality above all else,” John Hill wrote for Army Technology. “Yet military success will depend on energy and logistics, as has always been the case in historic campaigns.”

The Army seeks to build 10 small reactors this year under Project JANUS to ensure energy independence, the report states. Future warfare will demand more energy to power artificial intelligence data centers, directed-energy weapons like lasers and space and cyber-warfare infrastructure.

In the private sector, the University of Illinois has completed preliminary drilling on a microreactor through its Department of Nuclear, Plasma and Radiological Engineering, the university’s website states. The facility will deliver 16 to 50 MW of power while operating close to dorms and research buildings.

The University of Maryland, College Park, has operated a smaller research reactor, the Maryland University Training Reactor, since 1960. It provides 250 kW, or about as much as available portable solar generators, and powers irradiation experiments. A pneumatic “Rabbit” chamber can rapidly insert or remove payloads from the operating reactor.

The Maryland Next Generation Act, passed last year, sets out a timeline for the state to solicit new nuclear power capability after 2027, and Constellation Energy indicated it is ready to build new large-scale reactors at Calvert Cliffs.

Emerging technology like small modular reactors may come with additional delays, however, if federal regulators do not find a path for approval, Public Service Commission Chairman Frederick Hoover said in an October meeting.

“The government is really under pressure from the tech industry to expedite the deployment of new systems,” Walker said. “You still need to prove the system is safe.”

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