Image: Energy Secretary Chris Wright speaks at an event, April 28, 2025. Image Credit: Sarah Wood / U.S. Department of Energy via Flickr / United States Government Work
The Center Square [By Alton Wallace] –
The U.S. Department of Energy on Tuesday said it will provide up to $800 million to speed the deployment of advanced small modular reactors being developed by the Tennessee Valley Authority and private company Holtec.
The initiative is part of the Trump administration’s goal to use nuclear energy to expand the nation’s grid to support AI data centers that require large amounts of electricity.
The reactors are essentially small-scale nuclear plants made with modular parts that can be mass-produced in factories. The federal cost-share funding supports construction of the plants in Tennessee and Michigan by the early 2030s, the Energy Department said in a statement.
“These awards ensure we can deploy these reactors as soon as possible,” Secretary of Energy Chris Wright said in a statement.
The Tennessee Valley Authority, a federally owned corporation, and privately held Holtec Government Services will each receive $400 million, the department said.
TVA plans to use the funding to develop a reactor at the Clinch River Nuclear site in Tennessee and to speed the subsequent deployment of nuclear units at other sites. In May, Elementl announced a partnership with Google to develop three 600-megawatt nuclear reactors that will be used to power AI data centers.
TVA’s supply chain parters include Scot Forge, North American Forgemasters, BWX Technologies, Duke Energy, Oak Ridge Associated Universities and the Electric Power Research Institute, according to the Energy Department.
Holtec, headquartered in Florida and New Jersey, plans to develop two 300-megawatt reactors at the Palisades nuclear plant in Covert Township in southwest Michigan.
