The Trump administration has turned the global race for AI dominance into a new “Manhattan project” with nuclear energy seen as crucial to powering the growth of data centers across the U.S.
This led President Trump to sign a sweeping set of executive orders in May aimed at accelerating the deployment of nuclear energy by lessening the regulatory roadblocks needed to get reactors built.
While Trump’s plans include getting large legacy nuclear reactors back online, much of the focus for utilizing nuclear energy to power AI data centers has been on the deployment of small modular reactors (SMRs).
U.S. Energy Secretary of Energy Chris Wright is in fact a former board member of SMR startup Oklo (OKLO).
The one big elephant in the room for this plan, however, is that no SMR has ever gone live in the U.S. – creating uncertainty on operational costs and whether it's even scalable.
However, that could be about to change.
The U.S. Department of Energy has announced that the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) accepted a construction permit application for review from the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) to build an SMR.
TVA, which is the largest public energy provider in the country, has applied to build GE Vernova Hitachi’s BWRX-300 design.
GE Vernova Hitachi Nuclear Energy (GVH) is the nuclear power unit of GE Vernova (GEV).
GE Vernova is going global
TVA submitted its application to the NRC in late May to build the advanced nuclear plant at its Clinch River site near Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
One of the mandates in Trump’s executive orders from May was the “total and complete reform” of the NRC in order to jumpstart the approval process.
Per Trump’s order, the NRC must issue reactor license decisions within 18 months.
The next step in the process for TVA and GVH is a full safety review of the reactor design before it is cleared for construction.
“This is an exciting step to bringing the nation’s first utility-led SMR online,” TVA president and CEO Don Moul said in a statement. “As the first utility in the United States to have a construction permit application under review by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for the BWRX-300 reactor, this will create a path for other utilities to deploy the reactor,ensuring energy security and reliable electricity for all.”
The BWRX-300 is the only boiling water SMR design under development in the United States.
Ontario Power Generation (OPG) received government approval to build North America's first grid-scale SMR in April.
Four BWRX-300 reactors were cleared for construction in Clarington, Ontario and they’re expected to be operational in Canada by the end of 2029.
Meanwhile, GVH recently revealed that it also has an “early works agreement” with Fortum on the potential deployment of the company’s BWRX-300 small modular reactor (SMR) in Finland and Sweden.
GE Vernova’s stock was up 15.2% on Monday and has soared 68.7% YTD.
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