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A work of speculative fiction. The Department of Strategic Continuity is not a real government agency, and this is not a government website. About this project

Department of
Strategic Continuity

Research program · CII

Continuity Infrastructure Initiative

Designs, builds and operates the Department’s three Continuity Research Facilities, and conducts engineering research on computational and archival infrastructure intended to remain serviceable over decades.
Lead office
Continuity Infrastructure Administration
Established
April 2026 (expanded 1 September 2026)
Partner offices
Directorate of Neural Continuity

Program overview

The Continuity Infrastructure Initiative (CII) is the engineering program through which the Department plans, builds and operates its research facilities. It is led by the Continuity Infrastructure Administration, with the Directorate of Neural Continuity as principal partner and largest prospective user of its computational capacity.

The Initiative began in April 2026, when the site of Facility Alpha in southern Nevada was transferred to the Department. Alpha reached initial operating capability on 18 August 2026 with 18 MW of IT load installed against a 30 MW design, and now hosts ALPHA-1, the Department’s primary computing system, together with ICSM production runs and the NCRP emulation benchmark suite. On 1 September 2026 the Initiative was expanded to include Facility Bravo, a subsurface archival and computational facility on the Colorado Front Range, and Facility Charlie, a long-duration preservation facility in interior Alaska.

CII treats each facility as a research subject as well as an asset. The Department’s work requires infrastructure that can operate through prolonged disruption to external supply and that can be maintained by future staff who did not build it. Few existing facilities are designed against those requirements. The Initiative studies power, cooling, construction and operations practice with that horizon in mind, and publishes its findings so that they are available beyond the Department.

The Initiative’s compute and energy planning for large-scale neural emulation is documented jointly with DNC in DSC-TR-2026-008.

Research objectives

  1. Bring Facility Alpha to full operating capability, planned for Q3 FY2027, including installation of the remaining design IT load.
  2. Complete the Facility Bravo compute hall (8 MW), planned for mid-2027, and the Facility Charlie main vault, planned for 2028.
  3. Complete Phase 2 of Alpha’s on-site energy system: a 60 MW solar array with 240 MWh of battery storage.
  4. Achieve an annual power usage effectiveness of 1.15 or better at Alpha.
  5. Develop and document operating practices that allow facilities to be maintained across staff generations and through extended loss of external supply.
  6. Plan compute and energy capacity for later NCRP phases in step with Program results.

Current research areas

Select a research area to read a summary of current work.

High-density compute facility design

Layout, power distribution and direct-to-chip liquid cooling for accelerator systems at the density of ALPHA-1, and the design margins needed to accommodate hardware generations not yet specified.

Energy resilience

Integration of contracted grid supply, on-site generation and storage so that facilities can sustain priority loads through grid disturbances. Alpha’s solar and battery installation and Bravo’s dual feeds with 72-hour on-site generation are the principal test cases.

Thermal engineering

Heat rejection suited to each site: dry coolers in Alpha’s arid climate, geothermal-assisted rejection at Bravo’s subsurface levels, and passive thermal stability for Charlie’s archival vaults, which are built on engineered foundations rather than relying on permafrost.

Subsurface and hardened construction

Engineering for working levels at 140–190 m overburden at Bravo, a repurposed former hard-rock mine, including ground support, ventilation, water management and long-term structural monitoring.

Long-duration operations

Maintenance regimes, spare-parts strategy, documentation standards and staffing models for facilities intended to operate over several decades, developed with OLSR’s institutional design research.

Developmental milestones

Status as of October 2026.

  1. April 2026 Complete

    Facility Alpha site transfer

    Site in southern Nevada transferred to the Department; Initiative established.

  2. 18 August 2026 Complete

    Alpha initial operating capability

    ALPHA-1 entered service with 18 MW of IT load installed.

  3. 1 September 2026 Complete

    Expansion to Facilities Bravo and Charlie

    Initiative scope extended to the subsurface Colorado facility and the interior Alaska preservation facility.

  4. Q3 FY2027 In Progress

    Alpha full operating capability

    Remaining IT load installed toward the 30 MW design; solar and battery Phase 2 under construction.

  5. Mid-2027 – 2028 In Progress

    Bravo compute hall and Charlie main vault

    Fit-out of Bravo’s 8 MW compute hall (mid-2027) and construction of Charlie’s main vault (2028).

Research publications

Related facilities

CRF-A

Continuity Research Facility Alpha

Neural computation and high-performance computing

The Department's primary computing site. Facility Alpha hosts the ALPHA-1 system, runs production ensembles of the Integrated Civilizational Systems Model, and carries the Neural Continuity Research Program's emulation benchmark suite. Initial operating capability was reached on 18 August 2026.

Southern NevadaOperational

CRF-B

Continuity Research Facility Bravo

Underground archival and computational research infrastructure

A subsurface research facility built in a repurposed former hard-rock mine. Facility Bravo holds the Department's primary archive at 140–190 m of rock overburden and is fitting out an 8 MW compute hall for redundant computation and archive verification.

Colorado Front Range (subsurface)Partially Operational

CRF-C

Continuity Research Facility Charlie

Long-duration information preservation and redundant systems research

A cold-climate preservation site in interior Alaska, designed so that archival media survive more than a century without power. A pilot vault has operated since July 2026, and construction of the main vault is under way with completion planned for 2028.

Interior AlaskaCommissioning