Westinghouse has signed up a potential lead customer for its 225 MWe small reactor design based on AP1000 technology, called the Westinghouse Small Modular Reactor, to compete for US government R&D funding.
The utility is Ameren Missouri, which also runs the Callaway Nuclear Plant. All of Missouri’s electric energy providers have also committed to supporting the Westinghouse application to the DOE.
The US Department of Energy is looking to subsidize the cost of development of small reactors through the cost-share development, which Westinghouse said could be worth up to 50% of $900 million, depending on approval from the US Congress.
Several other SMR vendors are also in the running for the funding, Bechtel and B&W’s mPower reactor—B&W signed a letter of intent with TVA to develop up to six units at its Clinch River, Tennessee last year—an SMR from Holtec, and NuScale Power.
Should Westinghouse be awarded DOE investment funds, Ameren Missouri will be the first utility in the country to seek a Combined Construction and Operating license (COL) for a Westinghouse SMR.
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