US Nuclear Regulatory Commission Poised to Approve TVA's First BWRX-300 Reactor

According to reports, the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is expected to approve on Tuesday the Tennessee Valley Authority's (TVA) construction of the first 300-megawatt BWRX-300 reactor at the Clinch River site in Tennessee. TVA is considering deploying up to four units, and this license covers only the first unit. This license is a construction permit and does not yet mean the unit can enter commercial operation.

It is understood that the BWRX-300 is a Small Modular Reactor (SMR) that uses Boiling Water Reactor (BWR) technology, with a single-unit electrical power output of approximately 300 megawatts. Compared with traditional large-scale nuclear power, SMRs significantly reduce the amount of concrete and steel used per megawatt, can be factory-prefabricated and assembled on site, and shorten the construction period. AI data centers require uninterrupted, high-load, stable power supply year-round, and nuclear power has a capacity factor exceeding 90%, extremely low operational carbon emissions, and an asset life of several decades.

Through modular expansion, SMRs can in theory be deployed at a lower capital threshold in step with data center expansion and built near load centers. However, the cost advantage can only be realized once the stage of mass replication is reached, and the first reactor may be the most expensive. Tech giants such as Meta, Google, Microsoft, and Amazon are turning to SMRs, and the Trump administration has also publicly supported nuclear energy.

This will be the second construction permit for a small commercial modular reactor in the United States, after TerraPower received approval for its Wyoming project; Ontario Power Generation (OPG) of Canada began construction of the world's first BWRX-300 last year. Tech giants have begun turning electricity demand into early-stage financial support. Oklo's cooperation with Meta involves a nuclear power campus of up to 1.2 gigawatts in Ohio, with the first phase targeted to come online as early as 2030.