**Title**: Energy in the North - Gwen Holdmann and Nancy Balkus
**Date**: August 20, 2025
**Participants**: Amanda Byrd, Gwen Holdmann, Nancy Balkus


00;00;00;22 - 00;00;08;18 [Nancy Balkus] This is the first commercial micro reactor on a military installation, so there's no playbook. We're writing one as we're taking every step.

00;00;08;24 - 00;00;58;09 [Amanda Byrd] This week on energy in the North, I share an excerpt from guest host ACEP Chief Scientist Gwen Holdmann’s Closing the Gap podcast, where she speaks with Nancy Balkus, the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for infrastructure, Energy and Environment. Ms Balkus has been visiting Eielson Air Force Base a few times since taking on her new role in 2022. As it will be the first military installation to host a nuclear micro reactor built and operated by a commercial company licensed not by the Pentagon but by the Civilian Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Ms Balkus will be in Fairbanks again on Wednesday, August 27th, where the public will be invited for a town hall meeting to discuss the Eielson Micro reactor. And Gwen started the conversation by asking Ms Balkus, why Eielson Air Force Base
is an important location.

00;00;58;09 - 00;01;05;11 [Nancy Balkus] Alaska isn't just a rugged frontier, it's a strategic linchpin in the US defense architecture.

00;01;05;11 - 00;01;36;08 [Gwen Holdmann] Eielson may be located in a geostrategic part of the Arctic, but that's not the main reason it was chosen for this pilot project. The real reason - Reliable energy. micro nuclear reactor could provide partial redundancy for a coal plant that's been the primary source of heat and power for the base for more than 70 years. But building a first of a kind project isn't just a technical challenge. It also has to clear a tough licensing process that calls for genuine public engagement. And the Air Force is taking that mandate seriously.

00;01;36;11 - 00;01;58;06 [Nancy Balkus] The licensing process requires public and stakeholder engagement, which is already really important to us in the Air Force, but it's also a license requirement, so we have to do structured opportunities so that the public has input. They get to listen in engagements, they get to testify in hearings. And we will enhance transparency and community trust.

00;01;58;06 - 00;02;09;20 [Gwen Holdmann] ACEP has hosted two town hall meetings in Fairbanks in the past couple of years on advanced nuclear reactor technology, and both of them drew a lot of interest, so I know people will be eager to hear where things stand 

00;02;09;20 - 00;03;12;25 [Nancy Balkus] We were able to make an amazing announcement in May of 2025, where the Defense Logistics Agency's Energy Office announced a critical milestone with the issuance of the Notice of Intent to Award to Oklo Incorporated. That was a really exciting announcement. So what is notice of intent to award mean? It means that we've started the negotiation process to get to a full contract award. So the next steps are to do siting and environmental analyses that are going to be conducted to find the ideal spot on Eielson Air Force Base, where the project can be sited. So that's the most important next step is that the public will see internally inside the air Force. We will be allowing access and doing permits so that Oklo can do some site evaluation to inform the environmental, analysis as well as their construction approach.

00;03;12;25 - 00;03;22;09 [Gwen Holdmann] That's exciting news. And it sets the stage for what comes next. But what does it really mean to call this project a first of a kind? And what does that look like in practical terms?

00;03;22;09 - 00;03;52;03 [Nancy Balkus]This is the first commercial micro reactor on a military installation. So there's no playbook. We're writing one as we're taking every step. We're trying to establish a model for how future deployments can be done so that we're putting extra scrutiny on the safety, the scalability and community engagement. And we also want to have the vendor Oklo validate their technology and prove it can operate safely in Arctic conditions.

00;03;52;03 - 00;04;02;25 [Gwen Holdmann] The public is invited to attend the Department of the Air Force Town Hall, which will take place from 5 to 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, August 27th at the 8 Star Event Center on 30th Avenue, just off Airport Way.

00;04;05;10 - 00;04;30 [Amanda Byrd] The full version of this conversation is I'm closing the gap and can be found wherever you get your podcasts. Gwen Holdmann is the chief scientist for the Alaska Center for Energy and Power. Nancy Balkus is a Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Infrastructure, Energy and Environment and I'm Amanda Byrd, chief storyteller for ACEP. Find this story and more at uaf.edu/acep.