The United States signed a memorandum of cooperation with Japan and South Korea to create a framework between the three to deploy small modular reactors (SMRs) in other countries.
The initial focus on the countries’ three-way cooperation would initially focus on the Indo-Pacific region, according to the Department of State’s Tuesday press release. The agreement was signed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Japan’s Foreign Minister Motegi Toshimitsu and South Korea’s Foreign Minister Cho Hyun in Ankara, Turkey, where the NATO Summit is being held at.
Under the framework of the memorandum of cooperation, the three countries will focus on adopting fleet deployment models that would mitigate risk in project development, expedite licensing processes and build up nuclear supply chains. They will also look to bring in private capital investment to move these SMR projects forward.
The Department of State said the U.S. is committing over $10 million in funding for the department’s Foundational Infrastructure for Responsible Use of Small Modular Reactor Technology (FIRST) program to support this initiative. With this new funding, it will be used to provide technical support to countries in the Indo-Pacific region for the use of civil nuclear energy, the State Department said.
FIRST, established in 2021 under the Joe Biden administration, is a multi-agency government program focused on providing building support to allied countries exploring advanced nuclear technology, including SMRs.
The new funding will also establish an SMR regional training center for workforce development, according to the release.
Along with the memorandum of cooperation, the U.S. announced that it agreed to an industry program to deploy BWRX-300 SMRs, a 300-megawatt boiling water reactor, across Europe. Industry members involved with the agreement were GE Vernova, Hitachi, Samsung Construction & Trading (C&T) and SGE, as listed in the release.
“This initiative will help achieve the ambitions set forth in the memorandum signed today and deepen government-industry partnerships to strengthen global energy security,” the State Department said in the release.
GE Vernova’s BWRX-300 SMR is currently in the works of being developed at the Clinch River site in Tennessee in collaboration with the Tennessee Valley Authority. The Department of Energy awarded $400 million to that project in December 2025 in an effort to accelerate the deployment of SMRs in the U.S.
Additionally, much progress is also being made for the deployment of a BWRX-300 SMR in Canada as Ontario Power Generation (OPG) has already begun construction of the reactor at its Darlington nuclear site in Clarington, Ontario. OPG plans to build four SMRs at the Darlington site.