BWX Technologies to provide nuclear reactor engine fuel for DARPA space project

BWX Technologies (BWXT) announced that its reactor and fuel will be key components in the world’s first demonstration spacecraft using nuclear thermal propulsion. Working as part of a team led by Lockheed Martin, BWXT Advanced Technologies will complete final design of the nuclear reactor, manufacture the reactor’s hardware and fuel, assemble the components and deliver the fueled reactor as a complete subsystem for integration into the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s or DARPA, Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations, known as DRACO…”The award of this contract further demonstrates BWXT’s ability to design, manufacture and deploy nuclear reactors and fuel on a scale that is unmatched elsewhere in the world today,” said Joe Miller, president of BWXT Advanced Technologies . “This partnership with Lockheed Martin (LMT) working for DARPA adds another important dimension to BWXT’s already-impressive line-up of nuclear reactor designs for commercial and defense applications.”