12. Department of Energy and Related Commissions · Minor
Redirect the Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program toward commercializing SMRs
Printed page 382 12. Department of Energy and Related Commissions
“Refocus on resources that will support reliability. … For example, the already awarded Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program should help to move SMRs from pilot scale to commercialization and in the process address material, fuel, and regulatory issues that would pose deployment risk to utilities and Wall Street.”
What has happened
- Partially done
P.L. 119-74 section 311(a) confines the $3.1 billion of transferred IIJA money in the Nuclear Energy account to the two competitive Generation III+ small modular reactor deployment awards, the two Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program awards already made, and Risk Reduction for Future Demonstrations — a statutory redirection toward SMR deployment. DOE separately awarded $94 million to eight companies in May 2026 to speed near-term light-water SMR deployment. Partial rather than done: the ARDP awards themselves are unchanged in scope and no material, fuel or regulatory deployment-risk program of the kind the Quote describes was identified.
Research log
What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence
Research notes
See #953 for the transfer itself. The Quote’s substance is redirection of the already-awarded ARDP toward moving small modular reactors from pilot scale to commercialization.
- Action
- other
- Object
- Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program
- ID
- 970