The United States and Japan announced on Thursday that the American-Japanese joint venture GE Vernova Hitachi will invest up to $40 billion in the construction of small nuclear reactors (SMRs) in Tennessee and Alabama. The two countries will also collaborate in building natural gas processing sites in Pennsylvania and Texas, at $17 billion and $16 billion respectively, according to a statement.
In addition to the financial and geographical details, the statement did not provide specifics about the two gas projects. When contacted by AFP, neither the American group GE Vernova nor its partner Hitachi immediately responded. Established in 2007, GE Vernova Hitachi is currently developing the BWRX-300 reactor, with a capacity of 300 megawatts (MW), while traditional structures generally reach at least 900 MW.
It belongs to a new generation of small reactors, SMRs, considered less expensive, capable of being built faster, and offering higher security guarantees than their predecessors. However, no SMR is operational in the United States yet, and only one design has been approved to date by the U.S. civilian nuclear regulator, the NRC, that of the startup NuScale.
In Canada, the local regulatory Ontario Power Generation last year approved the construction of four BWRX-300 reactors at Darlington, in the greater Toronto area. GE Vernova Hitachi has already completed numerous installations of traditional reactors in the United States and around the world. According to the group, over a third of the reactors currently operational in the United States are the work of GE.
“The deployment of these SMRs in the United States will provide a stable source of new generation energy,” the two countries announced in the statement, and will also help “stabilize electricity prices for Americans and strengthen American-Japanese leadership in technology.” Besides Thursday’s announcements, the two nations are also studying other SMR projects as well as conventional reactors. The United States and Japan also committed on Thursday to develop a network of several partner countries in strategic mineral supply.
