The US Department of Energy (DOE) has opened applications for $900 million in funding to support a domestic deployment of small modular reactor (SMR) technologies.
The funding aims to support the private sector in the establishment of a pathway to deploying a fleet of Gen III+ SMRs across the country.
“Next-generation nuclear energy will play an important role in building the clean power sector of the future,” said John Podesta, senior advisor to the president on international climate policy
The DOE will offer funding through two tiers.
The first will cover first-mover team support, managed by the Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations. This tier will provide up to $800 million for milestone-based awards to support up to two first-mover teams of utility, reactor vendor, constructor, and off-takers committed to deploying a first plant while facilitating a multi-reactor, Gen III+ SMR order book.
Tier one must include a US utility, reactor technology vendor, engineering, procurement, and construction company, with the utility, end-user/off-taker, development company, or incorporated consortium as the lead applicant.
The second tier will cover fast-follower deployment support, managed by the Office of Nuclear Energy. This tier will provide up to $100M to spur additional Gen III+ SMR deployments by addressing critical gaps that have hindered the domestic nuclear industry in design, licensing, supplier development, and site preparation.
Tier two funding is sorted into three categories. Applicants must be planned project owners, utilities, or entities looking to improve the capability, capacity, or cost competitiveness of the domestic supply chain for Gen III+ SMRs.
Applications are due on January 17, 2025, at 5 pm ET.
SMRs and the data center sector
The DOE has estimated that the US will require between 700-900GW of low-carbon power generation to meet its 2050 net zero goals. Nuclear energy is crucial in the US energy mix, representing almost half of its carbon-free energy in 2023.
However, unlike traditional nuclear, SMRs offer potential use and flexibility across various industries due to their ability to be matched with loads and scaled to meet demand. This is especially apparent within the data center sector, which has signed several high profile supply agreements with SMR developers to power its operations.
In 2024, hyperscalers AWS and Google signed deals around deploying SMRs to power their data centers.
Most recently, in October, AWS signed a spate of agreements across the US for SMR deployments across its operations. This included a deal with Energy Northwest, a consortium of state public utilities that will enable the development of four advanced SMRs.
Alongside this agreement, it also made a direct investment into X-energy, a developer of SMR and fuel. X-energy’s reactor design will be used in the Energy Northwest projects.
Finally, in Virginia, it signed an agreement with utility company Dominion Energy to explore the development of an SMR project near Dominion’s existing North Anna nuclear power station.
Only a few days before the AWS announcement, Google reported that it had signed a corporate agreement to purchase nuclear energy from multiple small modular reactors (SMRs) from Kairos Power.
Kairos expects to deploy the first SMR by 2030, followed by further deployments until 2035. The US-only deal covers up to 500MW across six to seven reactors.
Due to their need for 24/7 consistent power, data centers match the power profile of SMRs, which has led to a boom in interest. As a result, data center operators increasingly see SMRs as a potential panacea for their requirements while adhering to their net-zero targets.
However, despite widespread enthusiasm among data center operators, SMRs remain an unproven technology that faces significant regulatory hurdles and concerns over scalability.
