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TVA joins international group in developing new small modular reactor design

Staff Photo by Dave Flessner / An architect's sketch shown during a Washington, D.C., event Thursday displays what one of the new GE Hitachi BWRX-300 small modular reactors would look like along the Clinch River near Oak Ridge, Tenn.
Staff Photo by Dave Flessner / An architect's sketch shown during a Washington, D.C., event Thursday displays what one of the new GE Hitachi BWRX-300 small modular reactors would look like along the Clinch River near Oak Ridge, Tenn. Staff Photo by Dave Flessner / An architect's sketch shown during a Washington, D.C., event Thursday displays what one of the new GE Hitachi BWRX-300 small modular reactors would look like along the Clinch River near Oak Ridge, Tenn.

By Dave Flessner 5 min read

America’s biggest government utility is joining with utilities in Canada and Poland and one of the oldest nuclear plant manufacturers to develop a basic design for their next generation of nuclear power.

The Tennessee Valley Authority signed a historic agreement Thursday with GE Hitachi, Ontario Power Generation in Canada and Sythos Green Energy in Poland to jointly develop a design and building approach for a 300-megawatt boiling water, small modular reactor design. If approved by regulators, TVA plans to install several of the new small reactors along the Clinch River in Oak Ridge and ultimately may build another 20 or more of the smaller reactors across the Tennessee Valley.

The four partners said they will jointly spend $400 million developing the design and ways to build the standardized units, which could also include a new type of steel bricks that TVA plans to test out with Department of Energy funding in Oak Ridge.

(READ MORE: Federal and Tennessee leaders back plans for more nuclear power in state)

“Working together, we are taking intentional steps to advance new nuclear in the U.S. and around the world,” TVA President Jeff Lyash said during an announcement of the new partnership in Washington, D.C. “This is a partnership between a great technology company, GE Hitachi and three power companies in the power sector.”