The U.S. Department of Energy announced Monday that it will provide $900 million of funding from the bipartisan infrastructure law to support the deployment of light-water small modular reactors.
The department will give up to $800 million to “up to two first-mover teams of utility, reactor vendor, constructor, and end-users or power off-takers committed to deploying a first plant while at the same time facilitating a multi-reactor, Gen III+ SMR orderbook,” the announcement said.
In a second round of funding, DOE will award up to $100 million to fix “key gaps” troubling the domestic nuclear industry in areas including design, licensing, supplier development and site preparation, with the goal of spurring additional Gen III+ small modular reactor deployments.
“President Biden is determined to ensure nuclear power — the nation’s single largest source of carbon free electricity — continues to serve as a key pillar of our nation’s transition to a safe and secure clean energy future,” Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm said in a release from DOE. “Today’s announcement will support early movers in the nuclear sector as we seek to scale up nuclear power and reassert American leadership in this critical energy industry.”
In the release, DOE said that it “estimates the U.S. will need approximately 700-900 GW of additional clean, firm capacity to reach net-zero emissions by 2050,” thus “establishing a committed orderbook of reactors in the near-term is critical to accelerating technology learning and reducing deployment costs.”
DOE said it anticipates announcing an official solicitation and opening up applications for the funding soon — either in late summer or fall of this year.
The department is offering to meet with potential applicants to discuss project concepts, though these meetings are not required to qualify for the funding, it said.
Meeting requests must include “representatives of at least two different types of entities interested in forming a project team, such as a utility and a constructor, a technology provider and an end-user, or any other permutation of eligible entities for the purposes of this opportunity,” DOE said.
