NRC Approves Permit for GE Vernova's BWRX-300 Reactor in Tennessee

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has approved a construction permit for GE Vernova's BWRX-300 reactor, to be built in Tennessee. This approval comes just 14 months after the application was submitted, beating the NRC's own expected schedule by four months.

This is only the second construction permit granted for a new type of US reactor in over a decade. The first went to TerraPower, a Bill Gates-backed startup building in Wyoming. The BWRX-300 has 300 megawatts of capacity and is designed to be smaller and more efficient than older reactor designs.

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) still needs to find a partner to help cover the costs of construction. A data center or other big commercial customer could potentially fill this role, but nothing is locked in yet.