The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) has selected Bechtel, Sargent & Lundy, and GE Hitachi to spearhead the initial planning and design phases for a potential BWRX-300 small modular reactor (SMR) at its Clinch River Nuclear site in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The collaboration, announced on Jan. 23, will leverage an innovative contracting model designed to streamline project delivery, the utility said.
The selection of the three partners, which followed a “rigorous” selection process, marks a major step toward TVA’s ambitions to build a 300-MW SMR project at Clinch River, a 935-acre site in Roane County for which TVA holds the nation’s only early site permit (ESP) from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). While TVA’s Board has not yet voted to approve an SMR at the nuclear site, the approach aligns with the utility’s structured planning process, which emphasizes incremental decision-making based on rigorous analysis.
As a first step, the partners will kick off the project’s validation phase, focused on developing a detailed cost estimate and schedule for the potential deployment of the BWRX-300 reactor. The phase, expected to last one or two years, will be conducted under an “integrated project delivery” (IPD) model.
Sargent & Lundy will lead the detailed site-specific design for the reactor, while Bechtel will contribute insights from its extensive nuclear construction experience. “GE Hitachi, supplier of the BWRX-300 reactor design, is expected to work closely with TVA and other partners to ensure the successful planning, design, and eventual implementation of the BWRX-300 at the site. As the next step, “A future multi-party agreement is contemplated under which incentives and arrangements will be negotiated to help ensure those estimates are achieved,” TVA said.
TVA Leads Federal Funding Bid to Accelerate SMR Deployment
The partnership’s announcement is notable given that TVA announced on Jan. 17 that it was leading an application for $800 million from the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Generation III+ Small Modular Reactor (SMR) Program to potentially support a BWRX-300 project at Clinch River.
The funding opportunity, which the DOE unveiled in October 2024, designates a combined $900 million. However, the bulk of the funding—$800 million—is notably designated for two “first mover” teams comprising utilities, reactor vendors, constructors, and end-users/off-takers committed to deploying a first plant “while facilitating a multi-reactor, Gen III+ SMR order book.” The DOE said the funding will be allocated in phases based on milestones: $200 million in fiscal year 2024, $300 million in fiscal year 2025, and up to $300 million in fiscal year 2026. More funding “plus possible in-kind support” will be based on milestones and funding splits between the awards, it said.
TVA’s application, notably, is supported by its three IPD partners— Bechtel, Sargent & Lundy, and GE Hitachi—as well as Duke Energy, BWX Technologies, EPRI, AEP subsidiary Indiana Michigan Power, Oak Ridge Associated Universities, Scot Forge, North American Forgemasters, the state of Tennessee, and other utilities and advanced nuclear project developers.
TVA CEO Jeff Lyash on Friday said that if awarded, the funding would accelerate the construction of TVA’s Clinch River SMR project by two years, potentially supporting a commercial operation timeframe in 2033. “The benefits from this funding reach beyond Clinch River as TVA will work with partners to share lessons and best practices that will offset costs and reduce risks for customers while advancing nuclear technology for the entire country,” the utility said.
Leveraging an ‘Integrated Project Delivery’ Model
The commercial partnership announced on Thursday could add more leverage to the public funding bid. In contrast to a traditional “design-bid-build” construction project delivery model typically used for power projects, an IPD approach, inspired by the construction industry, enjoins various parties involved in project design, fabrication, and construction under a single agreement. The approach is designed to circumvent potential delays and cost overruns through a system of efficient collaboration and communication.
“The integrated project delivery model is the preferred method that will make our project a true team effort,” explained Bob Deacy, TVA Clinch River Project senior vice president, on Thursday. “We will actively work together toward a target budget and schedule—creating a significant advantage to drive nuclear innovation, share risks and reduce costs. This collaboration will provide our region affordable, reliable, and increasingly clean power and improve America’s energy security.”
The IPD model, notably, is being implemented at Ontario Power Generation’s (OPG’s) BWRX-300 SMR project at the Darlington New Nuclear Project (DNNP) in Ontario, Canada. As POWER reported in February 2023, OPG partnered with Canadian heavyweights SNC-Lavalin (now AtkinsRéalis) and Aecon in a deliberate effort to address construction complexities, minimize potential delays, and control cost overruns associated with the project—which could become one of the first commercial SMR units built in North America.
TVA is also part of a pioneering technology collaboration agreement (TCA) alongside OPG and Synthos Green Energy—a company exploring BWRX-300 new builds in Poland—that will shape a standard design for the BWRX-300 and potentially speed up the technology’s regulatory acceptance and spur future deployment. Under the TCA, announced in March 2023, the companies will also develop a detailed design for key BWRX-300 power plant components, such as “reactor pressure vessels and internals,” GE Hitachi has said. The three power companies will also form a “Design Center Working Group” whose purpose will be “ensuring the standard design is deployable in multiple jurisdictions.”
TVA on Thursday lauded its partners’ experience. The utility noted it worked with Bechtel on other nuclear projects, including completing Watts Bar 2 in 2016—the first new nuclear unit added to the U.S. fleet in more than 20 years. The utility also routinely works with Sargent & Lundy, one of the world’s longest-standing full-service architect engineering firms.
TVA has also worked extensively with GE Hitachi, which is making substantial headway in deploying its BWRX-300, a 300-MW boiling water reactor (BWR) that the Wilmington, N.C.–based company launched in 2017. The reactor design is the 10th evolution of GE’s BWR technology, and GEH says it represents “the simplest, yet most innovative BWR design since GE began developing nuclear reactors in 1955.” On its website, GEH also notes that the design is based on the Gen III+ 1,520-MW ESBWR, which the NRC certified in 2014.
A Plan That Envisions Multiple SMRs
While project development will focus on a first deployment at Clinch River, “The IPD team approach is ideal for developing the potential for multiple innovative SMRs. TVA may consider constructing one or more SMR units,” TVA noted on Thursday. “The IPD team scope will also provide preliminary plans with estimated cost reduction forecast as it relates to constructing multiple SMRs to identify innovations and to provide a progression of cost reduction for additional reactors.”
In 2023, Lyash told POWER he envisions Clinch River as a pivotal site that could serve as a template for deploying multiple SMRs across TVA’s service territory, starting with a four-unit setup that could be replicated at other locations. “I’ve said very vocally, I [want] nothing to do with building one reactor, unless I can build 20—and 20 is the low estimate—and so, this is what Clinch River is about,” Lyash said as a guest on The POWER Podcast. “There’s an optimum way to build four units. It includes a lot of overlap—supply chain, labor, etc. That’s what we want to develop, but we’re going to ‘unlap’ the first unit so that we can learn all those lessons, identify all those risks, and make units two and three and four look significantly better and different, so that when we build site two, three, and four, we’ve got that,” he said.
Last year, the utility boosted its funding for its February 2022–launched New Nuclear Program to $350 million to support the comprehensive planning, design, and regulatory processes necessary for the deployment of SMRs through fiscal year 2026. A key aim is to ensure that TVA is well-positioned to lead in the adoption of advanced nuclear technology, the utility said.
Under the New Nuclear Program, however, TVA is evaluating several advanced reactor designs, including light-water and non-light-water cooled reactors, for potential deployment to help meet both its near- and long-term generation needs.
A key goal “is to identify an economically viable advanced nuclear technology to generate carbon-free electricity in the 2030s and beyond,” it notes. “Some SMR designs, such as the BWRX-300, use elements of proven technology and new innovations that simplify construction, maintenance, and operations to achieve a cost-efficient and reliable design,” it says. “These designs can also leverage the existing nuclear supply chain, including fuel supply, to increase cost-effectiveness and reduce risk.”
TVA is notably also working with Kairos Power, Bruce Power, Constellation, and Southern Co. on Kairos’s efforts to develop its advanced fluoride salt-cooled high-temperature reactor (KP-FHR). Kairos, founded in 2016, has been developing its molten salt technology via a “rapid iterative” development approach, which includes hardware demonstrations and in-house manufacturing “to achieve disruptive cost reduction and provide true cost certainty for commercialization.” The company has marked a number of notable regulatory milestones and recently kicked off the construction of Hermes, a 35-MWth iterative non-power demonstration molten salt nuclear reactor, at the East Tennessee Technology Park Heritage Center (ETTP) site in Oak Ridge. In October 2024, notably, it also garnered a pioneering corporate agreement with tech giant Google to deploy multiple SMRs in the U.S.
—Sonal Patel is a POWER senior editor (@sonalcpatel, @POWERmagazine).
