Quick Facts
- The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued a construction permit to the Tennessee Valley Authority for a BWRX-300 small modular reactor at Oak Ridge, Tennessee on September 29, 2026.
- The 300-megawatt reactor, built by GE Vernova Hitachi, can power roughly 300,000 homes and carries an estimated construction value of up to $5.4 billion.
- A separate deployment of 14 BWRX-300 units is proposed for the United Kingdom, backed by up to £35 billion in private capital and partners including Google Cloud and Samsung C&T.
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission approved a construction permit for Tennessee Valley Authority's BWRX-300 small modular reactor at Clinch River in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The September 29 decision is the first such permit issued in the United States for this reactor design and only the second construction permit granted for a commercial reactor in nearly a decade.
The NRC completed its 14-month review four months ahead of schedule. The review included safety and environmental evaluations and a mandatory hearing. "Four months ahead of schedule is what the new NRC looks like," said NRC Chairman Ho Nieh.
Developed by GE Vernova Hitachi Nuclear Energy, the BWRX-300 is a 300-megawatt boiling-water reactor built using factory-made sections assembled on site. Its passive safety design relies on gravity, pressure, and stored water to maintain operation if external power is lost. The unit fits within a footprint roughly equivalent to two soccer fields.
The permit sets an earliest construction completion date of October 1, 2031, and a latest date of September 30, 2032. The project carries an estimated construction value of up to $5.4 billion. A single unit is estimated to cost between $1.2 billion and $1.5 billion to build.
TVA has not announced a construction start date, a final project cost, or a confirmed funding structure. The authority said it continues to negotiate with industry partners on cost sharing and financial accountability. TVA is weighing as many as four BWRX-300 units at the Clinch River site.
The permit does not authorize fuel loading or commercial operation. TVA must obtain a separate NRC operating license before the reactor can generate power.
"This construction permit is more than a regulatory achievement — it's foundational for America's nuclear future," said TVA interim president Mike Skaggs. Jason Cooper, CEO of GE Vernova Hitachi Nuclear Energy, said fleet deployment is essential to scaling nuclear in the US and that Clinch River brings the company closer to making that fleet model a reality.
The BWRX-300 is also advancing in the United Kingdom. Warsaw-based Synthos Green Energy has proposed 14 BWRX-300 units across three sites in the UK through its subsidiary SGE SMR UK Limited. The proposal targets a combined capacity of 4.2 gigawatts and could require up to £35 billion, roughly $46 billion, in private capital investment.
Corporate partners on the UK project include Aecon Group, Etara, Fermi Development, Google Cloud, Laing O'Rourke, and Samsung C&T. Synthos Green Energy says the reactors could meet 11% of UK electricity demand, powering the equivalent of 8 million homes. Plans call for associated data centers to be co-located with the reactors, and Synthos hopes Google Cloud may transition from technology partner to investment partner.
Synthos Green Energy expects to enter the UK's Advanced Nuclear Pipeline in November 2026, with site selection and government negotiations completed in the first half of 2027. First commercial operation of the first UK unit is targeted for 2034. In fleet mode, each SMR is projected to cost approximately £2.2 billion to £2.5 billion.
The BWRX-300 has already passed Step 2 of the UK's Generic Design Assessment, with regulators finding no fundamental safety, security, safeguards, or environmental shortfalls with the design. For software and technology companies facing growing power demands from AI workloads and cloud infrastructure, dedicated nuclear capacity at or near data center sites represents a new category of energy procurement.
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