Aberdeen Proving Ground will receive a small nuclear reactor and a natural gas power plant, the U.S. Army said Friday. Fort Detrick will develop a fuel cell plant that turns natural gas or other fuels into electricity without burning them.

“The ability to provide backup power to our installations is critical to ensuring mission success and resiliency for our installations,” Jeff Waksman, principal deputy assistant secretary of the Army for Installations, Energy and Environment, said in a statement. “These awards are translating national energy priorities into action — promoting American energy dominance.”

The privately built plants will supply electricity to the regional grid while providing reliable power for the military installations, Army officials said. Development is expected to begin next year, with the plants producing electricity by 2030.

The Aberdeen project is part of the Army’s $2.2 billion Janus Project, which calls for 20 small nuclear reactors at military installations across the country. Army officials said the project is intended to provide safe and reliable nuclear power while expanding U.S. manufacturing and technological expertise.

The Army awarded Massachusetts-based Ameresco a contract to develop the Aberdeen power plants. Ameresco will work with Terrestrial Energy on a molten salt nuclear reactor.

Unlike conventional nuclear reactors, which use pressurized water for cooling, molten salt reactors use heated liquid salt at normal atmospheric pressure.

Bloom Energy received the contract to develop the fuel cell power plant at Fort Detrick.

“No construction will begin until rigorous environmental and regulatory reviews — including the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), Clean Air and Water Acts, and all required federal, state, and local permits — are fully complete,” the Army statement reads.

The safety of newer technology such as molten salt reactors will depend on companies carefully following those rules, said Carlos Talamás, an associate professor of engineering at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Talamás is also developing his own fusion reactor power system.

“My biggest concern is if they try to do it too quickly,” he said.

Scientists have tested molten salt reactors at Oak Ridge National Laboratory since the 1960s.

Oak Ridge has pledged to help companies develop the first commercial plants, according to the laboratory’s website. The laboratory says molten salt reactors can have fewer complex parts than conventional nuclear plants and can be adapted for different uses.

Some designs mix nuclear fuel directly into the liquid salt, eliminating the need to manufacture and dispose of solid fuel rods.

Terrestrial Energy said its reactor could generate 390 megawatts of electricity. By comparison, each of the two reactors at Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant in Lusby generates 895 megawatts.

State regulators said growing demand on the regional power grid is raising electricity costs and the risk of shortages. Maryland’s average residential electricity price rose from 19.29 cents per kilowatt-hour in June 2025 to 21.84 cents this summer, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Under the Maryland Next Generation Energy Act, the state will begin seeking proposals from companies to provide new nuclear power after 2027.

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