Nuclear reactors at March base head for Utah in a first-of-its-kind airlift
March Air Reserve Base was used to transport unfueled nuclear reactors from Southern California to northern Utah in the first airlift of its kind on Sunday morning, Feb. 15.
The flight advances President Trump’s goals for nuclear energy, which include rapidly building reactors to power artificial intelligence data centers for defense, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.
The six nuclear modules were supplied by El Segundo-based Valar Atomics, a nuclear energy startup, which has a research and development site in Hawthorne.
A convoy of cargo aircraft carried the “next-generation” modules from March, just outside Riverside city limits, to Hill Air Force Base, which is near the Great Salt Lake, about 30 miles north of Salt Lake City on the 15 Freeway.
From there, the modules are destined for the Utah San Rafael Energy Lab in Orangeville, Utah, for testing and evaluation, according to a news release from the U.S. Department of War. They will ultimately be part of a reactor called Ward 250 that Valar is shooting to make operational by July 4, the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
Valar was founded by entrepreneur Isaiah Taylor. He named Ward 250 after his great-grandfather Ward Schaap, who was a chemist on the Manhattan Project during World War II.
Valar’s website describes the Ward 250 as being part of a “second Manhattan Project,” and the flight was called Operation Windlord, “the first-ever airlift of a nuclear reactor and ancillary systems via C-17, opening a wide aperture for strategic nuclear deployment around the world.”
Secretary of Energy Chris Wright was on the flight, as was Michael Duffey, Undersecretary of War for Acquisition and Sustainment and Taylor.
A small press pool was invited to the event, and about a dozen reporters came in from Joint Base Andrews in Maryland. Reporters got to see the modules from a distance in the C-17. They looked a little like positive ends of gigantic AAA batteries.
Reporters weren’t provided the dimensions of the modules, but C-17s are capable of hauling more than 85 tons.
The payload included several box lunches from Panera Bread for the passengers.
Valar’s goal is to create “abundant and cheap gas out of thin air using atomic energy,” according to its Linkedin page.
On May 23, Trump signed Executive Order 14301, aimed at kicking off a “nuclear renaissance.” They include speeding up nuclear licensing with the goal of having at least three advanced nuclear reactors producing energy by July 4, 2026, the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.
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The U.S. Department of Energy Reactor Pilot Program relaxes rules by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which was established by President Gerald Ford in 1974 to ensure that radioactive materials are used safely.
March tankers and bombers were on alert as part of America’s nuclear deterrent force during the Cold War, according to the Air Force.
March is is the third oldest Air Force base in the nation, having started out as March Field in 1918. Bob Hope performed his first USO broadcast there on May 6, 1941.
In the early days, little surrounded the airfield. Today, the base is sandwiched between Riverside and Moreno Valley, surrounded by warehouses and thousands of residents lured by the Inland Empire’s logistics boom and the promise of more bang for the housing buck.
More than 100,000 vehicles a day travel on the stretch of the 215 Freeway just west of March. More than 9,000 people work at the base, making it one of the Inland Empire’s largest employers.
Today, the base is home to KC-135 Stratotanker planes, F-16 Fighting Falcon jets and MQ-9 Reaper drones. In the next few years, the KC-135s will be phased out and 12 state-of-the-art KC-46A Pegasus tankers will move in after $250 million in renovations are done.
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Over the decades, World War II bombers, nuclear-armed B-52 Stratofortresses are among the warplanes that have flown out of what used to be March Air Force Base.
In 1996, the base downsized to an air reserve base, a move that cost thousands of jobs and created more 4,000 acres of surplus land, much of it abandoned buildings and infrastructure.
Much of that land is now a business park and other amenities. But as the area around March has grown, so have concerns about having military aircraft close to homes and schools.
In 2019, an F-16 crashed into a warehouse near March. No one was killed and only minor injuries were reported in the accident, which was blamed on a loss of hydraulic pressure in the jet.