VENDORS TO COMPETE FOR NEXT ROUND OF DOE SMR FUNDING

After an announcement of an additional funding opportunity for small, modular reactor vendors by the Department of Energy earlier this week, NuScale Power said it is planning to compete for the $226 million that will be offered over a five-year period for up to several vendors. That funding would go towards a cost-share program that would be funded at least 50 percent by industry for licensing and eventual commercialization of the technology, and follows an award late last year from the same program to B&W. The Oregon-based company NuScale is “eager” to compete for the program, the company said in a release yesterday. NuScale is one of several vendors that have expressed interest in deploying small reactors at the Savannah River Site, and is backed by Fluor, the lead company in site management-and-operations contractor Savannah River Nuclear Solutions.