The U.S. Department of Energy has put US $900 million on the table to push small modular reactors (SMRs) from design to reality. While the funding program was originally launched in October 2024 under the Biden administration, it was amended last month to align with President Donald Trump’s policies—removing all community benefits requirements and flattening the evaluation weight evenly across technical and commercial criteria.
With a deadline of 23 April to apply, the program targets advanced Generation III+ reactors that scale down and modernize the basic tech behind conventional nuclear fission power plants. Qualifying SMRs must use light water—regular H2O, as opposed to heavy water which carries extra neutrons—as coolant. They also must use low-enriched uranium as fuel, which contains less than 5 percent of the fissile isotope U-235. Each design should generate between 50 and 350 megawatts per unit, simplify construction by maximizing factory fabrication, and ideally be ready for deployment in the 2030s. Gen III+ designs are intended to incorporate significant improvements over older models, including passive safety, better fuel and material performance, and greater efficiency.
Despite billions in global investment, SMRs have stayed “five to ten years away” for over a decade—with zero U.S. projects ever breaking ground. Some U.S. efforts have been canceled for financial reasons; Others remain stuck in pre-licensing or depend on international progress to reassure hesitant investors. Light-water Gen III+ projects in Canada and China are further along, but none are operational.
Whether the DOE’s renewed push is enough to break the cycle is uncertain, but by demanding near-term deployment plans, the program presents a compelling test of whether SMRs can finally clear these longstanding challenges.
Technical Maturity vs. Market Hesitation
The DOE program will grant up to $800 million to be split between one or two “first mover” projects that are “reliable, licensable, commercially viable, financeable,” and have a clear path towards fulfilling multiple commercial orders. These applicants must demonstrate that by the early 2030s, they could complete the necessary permitting, certification, and licensing reviews with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), secure local support and a solid supply chain with long-lead procurement, train operators, build the reactor (or reactors), and perform startup testing to ensure it’s producing power or process heat at capacity.
Another $100 million will fund “fast follower” projects navigating earlier-stage bottlenecks like supplier development, early site permits, and feasibility studies.
In both tiers, the agency expects applicants to demonstrate their technical capabilities, deployable timelines, economic impact, and potential replicability at other facilities for follow-on projects.
The agency wants the first-mover applicants to spell out their project milestones and schedules, licensing and construction strategies, financing plans, cost-overrun risk mitigation, and other key factors—a sign that despite the desire for near-term deployment targets, these SMRs aren’t yet ready for construction. (IEEE Spectrum reached out to the DOE for comment, but the agency did not respond in time for publication.)
“$900 million is better than nothing,” said Jacopo Buongiorno, a professor of nuclear science and engineering at MIT, “but the investment required to deploy even just one SMR unit is more than that.”
Although the cash can help with front-end licensing, permitting, and initial manufacturing, the capital to actually build a reactor is still missing. Nuclear plants in the U.S. have a history of long delays and soaring costs, even when the final plant has operated as expected. That history leaves investors and utilities wary.
Holtec is designing a 300 MW small modular reactor.Holtec International
“There’s a lot of talking, but nobody is writing the checks,” Buongiorno said. “Once the first project is successful, the floodgates can open.”
Still, water-cooled Gen III+ SMRs are a relatively safe bet for the DOE—mature, licensable, and closer to commercial readiness than alternative SMRs using molten sodium or helium gas as coolants. They also avoid the complications of Gen IV SMRs relying on high-assay low-enriched uranium fuel, which has no domestic supply chain.
Buongiorno warns against chasing undue complexity when the goal is reliable grid power. If the goal is connecting a large amount of electricity to the grid, “you can just go with the Westinghouse AP1000,” he said, referring to two full-scale reactors recently completed at Georgia’s Vogtle plant. Westinghouse is now adapting that conventional tech into AP300, a 330 MW SMR using a one-loop, pressurized water reactor Gen III+ platform. Design certification is expected by 2027, with potential deployment in the early- to mid-2030s.
Westinghouse declined to comment on whether they’d seek funding from the DOE’s program. However, several other companies are either applying or could be considered realistic contenders for it.
Oregon-based NuScale, founded in 2007, remains the only SMR with design approval from the NRC. The NuScale Power Module, a 77 MW pressurized water reactor, can be scaled in 6- or 12-module configurations up to 924 MW.
NuScale’s flagship U.S. project in Utah was canceled in 2023 after inflation, material prices, and interest rate hikes led to skyrocketing cost projections and partner withdrawals. From 2016 to 2020, project costs increased by 75 percent from $5.3 to $9.3 billion.
NuScale is now focused on the six-module RoPower project in Romania, targeting a 2029 deployment. In the U.S., the company announced plans in 2023 to develop SMRs for energy-hungry data centers in Ohio and Pennsylvania.
The latest investor presentation describes NuScale as “uniquely primed for near-term deployment,” citing the NRC’s expected mid-2025 conclusion of reviewing a planned capacity boost from 50 MW to 77 MW per module, with 12 modules in production and major investments in long-lead materials to support delivery in the early 2030s.
NuScale declined to comment for this story, so it’s unclear whether the company will apply for DOE funding. In last month’s earnings call, Clayton Scott, the company’s chief commercial officer, mentioned the team was cautious and still evaluating the opportunity.
GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy (GEH)’s BWRX-300 is a boiling water reactor utilizing aspects of GEH’s gigawatt-scale Economic Simplified BWR. The latter is a 1.5 GW Gen III+ reactor certified by the NRC in 2014. The smaller BWRX-300 is the closest thing to a “live” SMR project in North America, with construction set to begin this year at an Ontario Power Generation site in Canada, targeting commercial operation in 2029.
GEH is working with the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) and a coalition including Duke Energy and Bechtel on a potential deployment at the Clinch River site in Tennessee. In January, the group applied for the $800 million DOE funding tier under the Biden administration’s solicitation. Although the funding could speed up the first unit’s construction by two years, it still wouldn’t come online until 2033. The TVA confirmed it will resubmit its application for the new solicitation.
Meanwhile, GEH continues to progress through pre-licensing, with three topical reports currently in front of the NRC. These submittals could reduce regulatory uncertainty for TVA’s future construction permit application.
The BWRX-300 is the tenth generation of GEH’s boiling-water reactor technology, and it uses fuel that’s already approved for use in existing U.S. reactors. Jonathan Allen, a spokesperson for GEH parent GE Vernova, says the BWRX-300’s supply chain is ready to support customer demands.
The TVA decided to pursue the BWRX-300 when it launched its New Nuclear Program in 2022, in which it has invested $350 million to date. Although it’s evaluating multiple technologies for potential deployment, TVA spokesperson Scott Fiedler says the BWRX-300 has several advantages, such as U.S.-made fuel matching that of TVA’s existing Browns Ferry plant and fewer first-of-a-kind design features.
The TVA declined to share a cost estimate for the project, noting that its internal “decision gate” process requires meeting specific milestones before advancing. The first phase includes applying for the construction permit for the Clinch River location and estimating the scope of the project’s cost and timeframe.
Holtec’s SMR-300
Florida-based Holtec International aims to co-locate its SMR-300 reactors with the 800 MW Palisades plant in Michigan, which has been closed since 2022 in an extended shutdown. The company has invested over $50 million into site prep and environmental studies, and remains on track to begin the NRC construction permitting process by early 2026.
Holtec is developing its SMR-300 plant near the 800 MW Palisades plant in Michigan and could begin construction in 2026.Holtec International
Patrick O’Brien, Holtec’s director of government affairs, confirmed it will apply for DOE funding and is targeting 2030 or 2031 to begin operating the first two units at the Palisades plant. A full environmental review is planned through two key regulatory submissions between late 2025 and early next year.
Holtec intends to manufacture the first reactors in-house at its New Jersey facility. “We believe we have about 75 percent of the supply chain in place and feel that as the industry readies for deployment, the rest will come quickly,” O’Brien says.
Looking Ahead
The funding comes amid political uncertainty. While President Donald Trump has voiced support for nuclear power, clean energy tax credits under the Inflation Reduction Act could face cuts.
Domestic manufacturing and capital also remain uncertain, as SMRs face the same systemic obstacles that stalled U.S. nuclear for decades: volatile supply chains, cost surprises, and skittish investors.
“If the first-of-a-kind project takes three times as long and costs three times as much, it will look like the same old story and leave a pretty sour taste in everyone’s mouth,” Buongiorno says.
Success, in Buongiorno’s book, requires three simple metrics: deliver the plant on time, stay on budget, and meet performance and reliability targets once operating. No Gen III+ SMR in the U.S. has completed all three yet.
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