The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) has selected Bechtel, Sargent & Lundy, and GE Hitachi to spearhead the initial planning and design phases for a potential BWRX-300 small modular reactor (SMR) at its Clinch River Nuclear site in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The collaboration, announced on Jan. 23, will leverage an innovative contracting model designed to streamline project delivery, the utility said.
The selection of the three partners, which followed a “rigorous” selection process, marks a major step toward TVA’s ambitions to build a 300-MW SMR project at Clinch River, a 935-acre site in Roane County for which TVA holds the nation’s only early site permit (ESP) from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). While TVA’s Board has not yet voted to approve an SMR at the nuclear site, the approach aligns with the utility’s structured planning process, which emphasizes incremental decision-making based on rigorous analysis.