The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has reissued a significant $900 million funding opportunity, shifting its focus to accelerate the deployment of Generation III+ small modular reactors (SMRs). This move, which removes community benefit requirements and emphasizes technical merit, reflects the Trump administration’s revised energy and industrial priorities. The funding opportunity announcement (FOA), designated DE-FOA-0003485, was first issued in October 2024, backed by funds from the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) and authorized under the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2024. The effort is jointly administered by the Office of Nuclear Energy and the Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations (OCED), with technical support from the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA).
The revised solicitation maintains the original two-tier funding structure but introduces notable changes. Each of the four technical review criteria—Project Relevance and Impact, Technical Merit, Project Team and Resources, and Work Plan and Management—will now carry equal weight of 25%. This marks a departure from the original FOA, which included community benefits as a scored category. “The Trump administration has modified the solicitation process to ensure potential SMR first-movers are judged solely based on technical merit,” DOE Press Secretary Ben Dietderich stated. “With President Trump’s leadership, the Department of Energy is accelerating the development of American nuclear technology and ensuring the American people’s access to reliable, abundant, and affordable energy is the number one priority of all Energy Department projects.”
The most prominent change is the elimination of all community benefit obligations. The revised FOA removes the Community Benefits Plan, which previously required a five-page submission outlining how projects would support community and labor engagement, workforce investment, and equity objectives. It also eliminates the “Program Policy Factors” section, which the DOE used to prioritize projects based on geographic diversity, local job creation, engagement with disadvantaged communities, and alignment with broader social goals such as the Justice40 Initiative. The DOE now states that “applications will be evaluated solely on technical merit.”
Tier 1 of the funding opportunity will provide up to $800 million to one or two “first mover” teams composed of a U.S. utility, a reactor vendor, an engineering procurement construction (EPC) partner, and committed off-takers or end-users. Projects are expected to lead to the commercial deployment of an initial SMR plant while facilitating a multireactor, Gen III+ SMR order book. Tier 2 will provide up to $100 million to spur additional Gen III+ SMR deployments by addressing key gaps in areas such as design, licensing, supplier development, and site preparation.
Eligible Tier 1 projects must feature Generation III+ light-water reactor (LWR) designs ranging between 50 MWe and 350 MWe per unit. Projects may involve single-unit or multi-unit configurations with no cap on total site output. Designs must meet a minimum Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of 6, signaling sufficient maturity for system-level validation and procurement. The FOA stresses that cost-sharing is a core requirement, with DOE contributing no more than 50% of the overall project cost. Successful proposals must also demonstrate substantial pre-application engagement with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), a pathway to final design and licensing by the early 2030s, a clear project spend plan with a milestone-based cost structure, and a viable project financing strategy.
The DOE has clarified that federally funded pre-site development activities may be categorically excluded from detailed NEPA review, though coordination with the NRC is ongoing to prevent duplication. The revised solicitation also explicitly states that all applicants, new and returning, must submit their proposals in full through FedConnect, a government procurement portal. The new application deadline is April 23, 2025, 5:00 p.m. ET. Dietderich confirmed that previous applicants must revise and resubmit their applications in their entirety.
So far, only one team has publicly acknowledged pursuing the DOE’s Gen III+ SMR funding opportunity. On Jan. 17, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) confirmed it would lead an application for $800 million from the program. The coalition includes Bechtel, Sargent & Lundy, GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy, BWX Technologies, Duke Energy, EPRI, Indiana Michigan Power, Oak Ridge Associated Universities, and major industrial firms such as Scot Forge and North American Forgemasters, along with the state of Tennessee. The team aims to advance a 300-MW deployment of GE Hitachi’s BWRX-300 SMR at TVA’s Clinch River Nuclear Site in Oak Ridge, targeting commercial
