TVA reapplies for $800M grant to ‘accelerate' construction of Small Modular Reactor
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WATE) — The Tennessee Valley Authority has reapplied for an $800 million grant to 'accelerate' the construction of the country's first Small Modular Reactor (SMR), which could potentially be installed at the TVA's Clinch River Nuclear Site.
The reapplication comes after the U.S. Department of Energy updated grant criteria for the original $800M grant the TVA applied for in January, which was created and appropriated by Congress in 2024. The TVA said the DOE asked applicants to reapply after the criteria were updated.
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Since 2023, the TVA has been working with working with GE Hitachi, Ontario Power Generation and Synthos Green Energy to develop the standard design for the BWRX-300 SMR. In January, the TVA and its partners announced that they were entering the planning phase for the initial construction and design of the SMR for the TVA' Clinch River Nuclear Site.
The TVA said it has completed the Environmental Review for the Clinch River project and has sent a notification of intent to submit a Construction Permit Application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The TVA is hoping to submit the application by this summer, and earlier this month, it submitted an application for a separate DOE grant for $8 million in support of the NRC license review costs, the TVA said.
According to the TVA, preliminary site preparation for the Small Modular Reactor could begin as soon as 2026.
'We are facing a historic moment that could decide our nation's energy security for decades to come and the world is looking for American leadership,' said Don Moul, TVA President and CEO. 'This is not about building an SMR. We are working to develop a technology, a supply chain, a delivery model and an industry that will unleash American energy.'
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In January, the TVA released a document that said the nominal energy output for the BWRX-300 SMR would be 300 Megawatts of electrical capacity. Based on an explanation of the U.S. Energy Information Administration, if the reactor were able to operate at full capacity for every hour of every day for 365 days, the SMR could produce up to 2,628,000 megawatt hours of electricity per year.
In Tennessee, the advanced energy industry accounts for more than 400,000 jobs and is growing faster than the state's overall economy, one report from 2024 states. The report added that in 2022, advanced energy added $56 billion to Tennessee's GDP during 2022.
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