Applied Atomics has secured an exclusive land-based license to commercialize BWXT's mPower small modular reactor, reviving one of America's most developed SMR designs nearly a decade after its original program was shelved. The agreement, announced on June 17, 2026, gives the young nuclear developer the rights it needs to chase a surge in demand for firm, carbon-free power.
An Exclusive License, With Strings Attached
Under the deal, Applied Atomics gains exclusive rights to deploy the mPower design in land-based nuclear facilities in the United States, Canada and elsewhere. BWX Technologies (NYSE: BWXT) retains ownership of the mPower intellectual property and keeps exclusive manufacturing rights for all components, plus royalties on any parts built by Applied Atomics or third parties. Financial terms were not disclosed.
"BWXT spent a decade working to design mPower. Our job is to complete its development then design and deploy the first optimized, vertically integrated SMR power plant," said Benjamin Kellie, chief executive of Applied Atomics.
What mPower Brings to the Table
mPower is an integral pressurized light-water reactor engineered to produce 195 megawatts of electricity and 575 MWth of heat per unit. By housing all primary components inside a single vessel, the design eliminates the external coolant piping found in conventional plants and, with it, the loss-of-coolant accident that has long shaped reactor safety cases. The reactor runs on standard low-enriched uranium and is built for refueling cycles of at least two years.
Riding the Data-Center Power Crunch
The timing is deliberate. U.S. electricity demand is climbing at its fastest pace in a generation, driven by data-center construction that analysts estimate will need more than 300 gigawatts of new capacity by 2035. Applied Atomics is targeting industrial and technology customers first, pitching factory-built, site-flexible reactors for behind-the-meter and campus-scale deployments.
The company will now re-engage the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to resume mPower design certification and begin site-specific engineering, with BWXT providing technical support. The move adds to a fast-growing SMR field that includes Elementl Power's BWRX-300 plant in Ohio, NuScale's safety-systems work with Paragon, and Vattenfall's selection of Rolls-Royce SMR in Sweden.
BWXT had preserved the mPower engineering archive and test facilities after suspending the program in 2017, and said it vetted partners on capital strength, deployment intent and nuclear-safety culture before choosing Applied Atomics.
Reporting based on coverage from Applied Atomics and BWX Technologies (GlobeNewswire).