TVA, ENTRA1 Energy team up for SMR deployment

The six ENTRA1 Energy Plants, each powered by multiple NuScale Power Modules, could provide enough energy to power the equivalent of some 4.5 million homes or 60 new data centres, TVA said.

ENTRA1 is NuScale Power Corporation's strategic partner and has exclusive global rights to the commercialisation, distribution, and deployment of NuScale’s products and services, acting as a one-stop-shop and hub for the deployment, financing, investment, development, execution, and management of ENTRA1 Energy Plants. The plants - containing NuScale’s small modular reactors (SMR) -would be owned and financed by ENTRA1.

NuScale's small pressurised water reactor is the first - and, so far, only - small modular reactor (SMR) design to receive certification by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

NuScale President and CEO John Hopkins described the agreement as "historic", and added that ENTRA1's combined energy and finance sector experience will support the next phase of commercialising and deploying the technology. "Together, we are ready as partners to meet America’s surging demand for reliable, carbon-free baseload power - powering AI data centres, critical mining, semiconductor manufacturing, and the energy-intensive industries that are driving our nation’s economic future," he said.

TVA - the Tennessee Valley Authority - is the largest public power supplier in the USA, providing electricity across seven southeastern states from a diverse portfolio including nuclear, hydro, coal, gas, solar and advanced technologies. Earlier this year, it submitted an application for a permit to construct an SMR at Clinch River, near Oak Ridge in Tennessee, using GE Vernova Hitachi Nuclear Energy's BWRX-300 technology. Recently, it signed a power purchase agreement with Kairos Power for up to 50 MW of electricity from Kairos Power's Hermes 2 demonstration reactor, which is to be built alongside the Hermes low-power demonstration plant currently under construction at Oak Ridge.

In February, the authority signed a cooperative agreement with US fusion energy developer Type One Energy to jointly develop plans for a potential fusion power plant project.

"TVA is leading the nation in pursuing new nuclear technologies, and no utility in the US is working harder or faster than TVA," TVA President and CEO Don Moul said. "This agreement with ENTRA1 Energy highlights the vital role public-private partnerships play in advancing next-generation nuclear technologies that are essential to providing energy security - reliable, abundant American energy - and creating jobs and investment across the nation."