| Update: nuclear power
ENTRA1 Energy is described as NuScale’s strategic partner and the two companies have an existing 50/50 joint venture company – ENTRA1 NuScale LLC.
ENTRA1 Energy “holds the global exclusive rights to the commercialisation, distribution, and deployment of NuScale’s products and services” and describes itself as “the one- stop-shop and single hub for the deployment, financing, investment, development, execution, and/or management of ENTRA1 Energy Plants™ with NuScale SMRs-inside.” NuScale points out that its SMRs are the first and only small modular reactor technology to have received Part 52 approval by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Looking further ahead, TVA has fusion aspirations, having signed a letter of intent with Type One Energy to bring the USA’s first commercial stellarator based fusion power plant to the Tennessee Valley. TVA says its “highly skilled workforce will help manufacture components for the prototype fusion machine” at its Bull Run site.
More immediately, operating licences for all three BWRs at TVA’s first nuclear power plant, Browns Ferry, have been renewed by the NRC, allowing continued operation through to the mid-2050s.
Meanwhile, TVA is continuing to substantially expand its gas fired generating capacity. It has recently completed 530 MW of new aeroderivative based gas fired generation (ten units) at the Johnsonville natural gas plant, TVA’s first deployment of aeroderivatives, able to ramp up or down quickly to meet fluctuating demand. Combined with 14 existing combustion turbine units, the Johnsonville site can now deliver more than 1300 MW of dispatchable power to TVA’s grid. TVA has over 3500 MW of gas fired capacity currently under construction, including 16 additional aeroderivative units at the Kingston Energy Complex in Roane County, Tennessee. TVA plans also include 200 MW of aeroderivatives at the Allen site, Memphis.
The rise of Holtec
Holtec’s SMR, LLC business unit, responsible for the licensing of its SMR-300 reactor, has successfully submitted several licensing topical reports to the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, culminating in the submission of the Preliminary Safety Analysis Report (PSAR) and the Limited Work Authorization (LWA) Package to construct Pioneer units 1 & 2 at Palisades. Holtec says it is now poised to begin preparatory civil construction work at the site as soon as its previously shuttered 805 MWe Palisades plant (CE PWR) is successfully reconnected to the grid, expected by the end of February 2026. Holtec says outstanding attributes of its SMR-300, such as compactness, PWR origins, ability to be operated in water-challenged locales, and its high seismic tolerance, “have drawn strong interest from countries far and wide, many of whom do not have an operating nuclear plant at present.” The company says it is particularly
gratified by its regulatory progress in the UK, expected to culminate in a successful Generic Design Assessment (GDA) Step 2 outcome in early 2026. The design adaptations for the UK will align SMR-300 to the AC frequency used in most of the world (50 Hz) facilitating its global adoption. Holtec has signed an MOU with EDF (UK) envisaging the building of SMR-300s at the former coal-powered Cottam site in the UK. Holtec says its operator training centre was fully accredited in 2025, giving the company the ability to train people to operate SMR-300s in countries that are new to nuclear power generation. It is envisaged that the Pioneer FOAK units will be built by Holtec with construction financing from the DOE’s Loan Programs Office. “With the financial pathway secured,” says Holtec, “we look with guarded confidence to implement our “Mission 2030”, which contemplates the Pioneer reactors being brought online in the first years of the 2030s.” US DOE will provide milestone-based cost- share support that is intended to advance licensing, pre-construction, and supply-chain mobilisation for the Palisades Pioneer 1 & 2 SMR-300 project. Holtec’s plans include a multi-site deployment pathway that establishes a repeatable, fleet-scale model — a core requirement intended to drive down costs and shorten construction durations through standardisation and manufacturing efficiency. The DOE’s support is an essential enabler of the Palisades SMR-300 project, says Holtec, moving it from development to deployment by building on the government’s prior support for Holtec’s SMR technology under the 2020 DOE Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program (ARDP) Risk Reduction for Future Demonstrations. “The future of nuclear energy as a source of reliable baseload electricity to power the economy of the future is realised only if we,
in the industry, make the reactors predictably cost competitive…We are energised by DOE’s confidence in our SMR-300 reactor, which we view as validation of our 14-year quest to develop a walk-away-safe and cost-competitive nuclear reactor. This grant positions Holtec to accelerate deployment of a standardised SMR-300 fleet that strengthens US energy security and grid resilience and will further bolster Holtec as one of the largest US exporters of nuclear equipment,” said Dr Kris Singh, CEO and Executive Chairman of Holtec International. Holtec says the restarted Palisades plant (which it acquired in 2022) – thought to be the world’s first restart of a retired nuclear plant – is due to be synchronised with the grid early 2026, “months ahead of the committed schedule and substantially below the allotted budget, provides contemporary evidence of our execution credentials.”
Holtec applauds the Palisades restart programme for having created an “operational platform, an operator and maintenance staff training pipeline, and a ‘can-do’ nuclear project environment that is expected to have a salutary effect on the accelerated deployment of the SMR-300 fleet.” And in recognition of the importance of the Pioneer 1 & 2 SMR project to the company, Holtec’s president, Kelly Trice, who has shepherded the Palisades restart programme since its inception, will also helm the Palisades SMR-300 project. Holtec, founded in 1986, with an initial focus on spent fuel storage systems, has never built a nuclear power plant but holds an impressive portfolio of patents relating to pressurised water reactor technology, including, intriguingly, a recent one for a horizontal PWR steam generator.
Visualisation of Holtec SMR at the Palisades site. (Image: Holtec)
www.modernpowersystems.com | January/February 2026 | 15
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