The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations (OCED) in collaboration with the Office of Nuclear Energy (NE) intends to issue a solicitation entitled “Generation III+ Small Modular Reactor Pathway to Deployment Program”. This Notice of Intent (NOI) describes a preliminary plan that will evolve during the solicitation development process.
The primary objective of this program is to focus DOE and non-federal resources on a credible and sustainable pathway to fleet-level deployment of Generation (Gen) III+ small modular reactors (SMR). To spur the necessary industry-wide momentum, DOE intends to offer funding for projects under this solicitation through two tiers:
- Tier 1 will provide up to $800M to support up to two first-mover teams of utility, reactor vendor, constructor, and end-users/off-takers committed to deploying a first plant while facilitating a multi-reactor, Gen III+ SMR orderbook.
- Tier 2 will provide up to $100M to spur additional Gen III+ SMR deployments by addressing key gaps that have hindered the domestic nuclear industry in areas such as design, licensing, supplier development, and site preparation.