The US Department of Energy has selected eight companies to receive more than $94 million in federal cost-shared funding to accelerate the near-term deployment of advanced light-water small modular reactors (SMRs). The awards, made under the Generation III+ SMR Pathway to Deployment Program, target three persistent bottlenecks that have slowed the domestic nuclear industry: licensing, supply chain and site preparation.
Where the money is going
Two awards focus on site selection and preparation. Constellation SMR Development received about $17.3 million to pursue an early site permit in New York, while Nebraska Public Power District was awarded roughly $27.9 million for an early site permit in Nebraska. The remaining funding targets the manufacturing base: BWXT Nuclear Energy ($21.4 million) will equip a facility in Mount Vernon, Indiana, for assembly of reactor pressure vessels, and Framatome ($8.8 million) will expand fuel fabrication in Richland, Washington, adding about 200 metric tons of uranium in annual capacity.
Rebuilding the supply chain
Smaller awards round out the supply-chain push: Global Nuclear Fuel Americas ($3 million) in Wilmington, North Carolina; Scot Forge ($12.3 million) in Spring Grove, Illinois; American Forgemasters ($2.9 million) in New Castle, Pennsylvania; and Container Technologies Industries ($547,900) in Helenwood, Tennessee. Together, the projects are meant to strengthen domestic capacity for the large forgings, fuel and components that new reactors require, building on momentum from projects like the NANO Nuclear KRONOS microreactor's NRC review.
Building on larger commitments
The new awards complement earlier $400 million Tier 1 commitments under the same program. The Tennessee Valley Authority is advancing a GE Vernova Hitachi BWRX-300 at the Clinch River site in Tennessee, while Holtec plans to deploy two SMR-300 reactors at the Palisades plant in Michigan. The combined effort aims to seed an order book for Gen III+ reactors and deliver new nuclear generation in the 2030s, echoing other advanced-reactor progress such as a 600 MW advanced reactor moving forward.
A bet on baseload power
The push reflects surging electricity demand, particularly from data centers and artificial intelligence, and a policy bet that smaller, factory-built reactors can be deployed faster and more cheaply than conventional plants. It also arrives as renewables continue to scale, with solar and wind recently outproducing gas in global power.
Reporting based on coverage from the US Department of Energy, the American Nuclear Society and Neutron Bytes.