The endgame of AI is "high-quality electricity"! US Tennessee nuclear power project set to be approved, taking SMR commercialization a step further.

Title context: The endgame of AI is "high-quality electricity"! US Tennessee nuclear power project set to be approved, taking SMR commercialization a step further. Text: The massive expansion of AI computing power demand is elevating the strategic value of continuous power supply capability, while small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs) are ushering in new regulatory progress. According to the latest official media notice from TVA (Tennessee Valley Authority), the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission is expected to approve on Tuesday the construction of the first 300-megawatt BWRX-300 reactor at its Clinch River site in Tennessee; TVA is considering deploying up to four units, but this license covers only the first unit. The significance of this latest positive move by the US government on nuclear power is that advanced nuclear power is gradually crossing the licensing threshold, creating conditions for future additional generating capacity; this expected approval is a construction permit and does not yet mean the unit can enter commercial operation. The BWRX-300 is a small modular reactor (SMR), specifically adopting the boiling water reactor (BWR) technology pathway within the light water reactor category, with a single-unit electrical power of approximately 300 megawatts. Compared with traditional large nuclear power plants, the BWRX-300 and the broader SMR pathway substantially reduce the amount of concrete and steel required per megawatt, and have the capability for factory prefabrication and rapid on-site assembly, greatly shortening the construction cycle. From the perspective of underlying energy engineering, nuclear power supply, especially the SMR technology pathway, can be described as one of the most strategically valuable long-term power sources for the AI data centers currently being built on a massive scale. High-density AI GPU superclusters require stable power supply that is uninterrupted year-round, has an extremely high load factor, and possesses strict power quality and clean environmental attributes, while nuclear power has a typical capacity factor of more than 90%, extremely high fuel energy density, extremely low operational carbon emissions as required by the social responsibility of tech giants, and decades-long asset lifespans, which can reduce data centers' dependence on weather, natural gas pipelines, and long-distance transmission. Compared with gigawatt-scale traditional nuclear power, the SMR nuclear power technology pathway, through factory prefabrication, passive safety, and modular expansion, can in theory be deployed with a lower capital threshold per project, in line with the pace of data center expansion from tens of megawatts to hundreds of megawatts, and can be built near load centers; however, these cost advantages can only hold once the "Nth unit of the same type" batch replication stage is reached, and the first unit may instead be the most expensive. Meta, Google, as well as Microsoft, Amazon, and other large tech giants are increasingly turning to small modular reactor technology, which is still in its early stages of development, to meet data centers' future large-scale demand for efficient and clean electricity; the Trump administration has also publicly supported the nuclear energy industry, promising to reduce cumbersome regulation and invest tens of billions of dollars to build new reactors and restart old reactors that had been abandoned. Tennessee project faces key approval milestone, large-scale SMR nuclear power moves from customer commitments toward on-schedule delivery Under the current and long-term global trend of low carbon and complete decarbonization, nuclear energy, as an efficient and stable clean energy source, has in recent years become the energy source most favored by tech giants such as Amazon, Google, and Microsoft. This energy source, combining clean, stable, and efficient attributes, is expected to provide powerful 24-hour uninterrupted electricity support for their enormous data centers. Therefore, global politicians and technology companies currently support nuclear energy and nuclear power plants perhaps more strongly than at any time since the 1970s. A US regulatory agency is about to approve the Tennessee Valley Authority's proposal to build a small nuclear reactor, an important signal of progress in the nuclear fission industry. According to a media notice released by the Tennessee Valley Authority, the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission is expected to issue a construction permit on Tuesday allowing the agency to build a 300-megawatt unit at the Clinch River site west of Knoxville, Tennessee. The Tennessee Valley Authority is considering deploying up to four BWRX-300 reactors supplied by GE Vernova Hitachi Nuclear Energy, though this license covers only the first unit, confirming Bloomberg News' report last week. GE Vernova Hitachi Nuclear Energy is one of dozens of companies developing new, smaller-scale reactors. These reactors are expected to be manufactured in factories and then shipped to sites for assembly, aiming to reduce costs and shorten construction time. However, this concept remains to be proven, and currently only two such reactors are under construction outside China and Russia. This will be the second construction permit issued in the United States for a small commercial modular reactor, after TerraPower received approval in March for a project in Wyoming. In Canada, Ontario Power Generation began construction last year on the world's first BWRX-300 unit. The endgame of AI is reliable high-quality electricity: US small nuclear reactors approach the construction threshold The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission is expected to approve on Tuesday the construction of the first 300-megawatt BWRX-300 reactor at its Clinch River site in Tennessee. Nuclear power plants using the advanced SMR technology pathway can be said to be gradually crossing the licensing threshold, creating conditions for future additional generating capacity. From the operating mechanism of AI inference systems, intelligent agents extend a single request into multiple rounds of model calls, tool execution, and result verification, causing GPUs, CPUs, memory, networks, and cooling systems to jointly bear the load of continuous operation. As user scale, task frequency, and concurrency expand, data centers need to simultaneously guarantee power supply capacity and service continuity. Nuclear power therefore possesses three power attractiveness factors that go beyond carbon emissions and are critically important: continuously providing large-scale electricity, reducing sensitivity to weather and short-term fossil fuel prices, and improving cost predictability through long-term power purchase arrangements. Nuclear power can shoulder stable baseload, while the grid, energy storage, and backup power work together to handle maintenance and load fluctuations; this combination helps reduce the time that expensive computing equipment sits idle due to insufficient power supply. The US Department of Energy also lists continuous power supply, longer refueling cycles, and a relatively low share of fuel costs as the main advantages of combining nuclear power with data centers. Tech giants have already begun converting future electricity demand into early-stage funding support for nuclear power projects. Nuclear power newcomer Oklo's cooperation with tech giant Meta involves a nuclear power park of up to 1.2 gigawatts in Ohio, with the agreement setting up mechanisms for prepaid electricity fees and early development funding, with the first phase targeting operation as early as 2030. On the fuel side, Oklo signed a letter of intent in June with Centrus to purchase HALEU fuel, with deliveries planned to begin in 2029, supporting the multi-year operating needs of up to five Aurora units, though specific supply still requires a formal agreement to be finalized. In August, Oklo's Groves low-power isotope test reactor achieved first criticality, accumulating construction and commissioning experience for subsequent projects; this progress and the commissioning of the Aurora commercial power project are different milestones. The so-called "reliable power premium" that is, electricity that can be delivered on schedule and support high-utilization computing operations is gaining higher commercial value. The BWRX-300 selected by TVA directly corresponds to GE Vernova's and Hitachi's nuclear businesses, and it uses GNF2 fuel, which already has a commercial supply base, helping reduce delivery uncertainty caused by new fuel development. For investors, what is crucial to the SMR nuclear power technology pathway is that licensing progress, fuel assurance, construction costs, and long-term power purchase arrangements together determine whether companies can convert AI demand into cash flow. Modular construction of small reactors is expected to improve construction schedules and replication efficiency, while the actual costs and delivery performance of the first batch of projects will determine whether this advantage can form sustainable returns.