Department of Energy Awards $450 Million for Commercial Small Modular Nuclear Reactors

WASHINGTON — Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm announced on Monday the distribution of $450 million in federal matching grants through the Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program (ARDP) to finance the detailed engineering, licensing, and commercial construction of two Generation-IV Small Modular Reactor (SMR) power plants in Idaho and Wyoming.

The demonstration facilities, engineered by advanced nuclear developers in partnership with regional electric cooperatives, will deploy high-temperature gas-cooled and sodium-cooled fast reactor designs capable of generating 600 megawatts of continuous, zero-carbon electricity to supply emerging artificial intelligence data centers and industrial manufacturing clusters.

Providing 24/7 Carbon-Free Baseload for Grid Reliability Unlike traditional gigawatt-scale light-water reactors that take over a decade to construct, factory-fabricated small modular reactors feature modular components that can be mass-produced in controlled manufacturing facilities, transported by rail, and assembled on-site at retiring coal plant locations.

"To power our industrial manufacturing renaissance, re-shore semiconductor fabs, and meet the massive electrical demand of artificial intelligence, America needs clean, reliable baseload electricity 24 hours a day, 365 days a year," Secretary Jennifer Granholm said in Washington. "Small modular nuclear reactors represent the future of clean American energy leadership. This $450 million investment will construct our nation's first commercial SMR demonstration plants, creating thousands of high-paying union jobs while delivering abundant, carbon-free power to our grid."

Demonstration Project Locations The two funded SMR projects include:

• Kemmerer, Wyoming: A 345-megawatt sodium-cooled fast reactor paired with a molten salt thermal energy storage system on the site of a retiring coal plant.
• Idaho National Laboratory (INL) Campus: A 250-megawatt high-temperature gas-cooled modular reactor delivering high-temperature industrial process heat and grid electricity.

Building trades labor unions and utility industry executives commended the federal awards, highlighting that small modular reactors utilize existing electrical substation switchyards and high-voltage transmission lines at retiring fossil-fuel facilities.