Blue Energy and GE Vernova Hitachi Nuclear Energy have signed an agreement to move the 2.5-gigawatt project in Victoria, Texas into its operational phase. The deal covers detailed engineering, regulatory licensing, and safety analysis. A final investment decision is expected in 2027.
At the heart of the project is a hybrid plant that brings two different technologies under one roof. Two GE Vernova 7HA.02 gas turbines will come online first, delivering approximately 1 gigawatt to the grid — and to a nearby data center — as early as 2030. The nuclear component will follow in 2032: up to five BWRX-300 reactors rated at 300 megawatts each, adding roughly 1.5 gigawatts of capacity. Total output would reach 2.5 GW by the early part of the next decade.
Blue Energy has already submitted the first part of its construction permit application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The initial package has been filed, with the remaining portion to follow in 2027, after the completion of a one-year site-specific data collection process required by the NRC. The filing strategy is therefore phased, in line with the federal regulator’s requirements.
The financial and construction model Blue Energy is looking to prove out in Victoria is unconventional. The idea is to use revenues generated by the gas turbines in the early years to offset the costs of building the nuclear plant, reducing the financial risk typically associated with a pure nuclear project. Blue Energy calls this construction approach the “Blue Way”: it leverages the standardized design of the BWRX-300 to front-load manufacturing in a factory setting, shifting the production of major components away from the construction site. The agreement signed in April 2026 to accelerate the project, and the more recent one in August, mark two consecutive milestones in the same direction.
The mounting pressure on U.S. electricity demand is what is driving this type of solution. Data centers, artificial intelligence, and advanced manufacturing all require large quantities of reliable power — often before traditional nuclear timelines can deliver it. Combining gas and SMRs on a single site is designed precisely to bridge that gap: immediate power from gas, followed by progressive decarbonization through nuclear. Eric Gray, CEO of GE Vernova’s Power segment, described the approach as building “a replicable model for large-scale baseload generation.”
The BWRX-300 is already in the pre-licensing phase in both Canada and the United States, where the Tennessee Valley Authority has filed a parallel application with the NRC for the Clinch River site. If the Canadian project — expected before the end of the decade — becomes the first reference reactor of the series, the lessons learned could accelerate subsequent builds, including the one in Texas. Victoria could thus become the first commercial plant to integrate gas and nuclear into a single generation infrastructure, setting a precedent that other developers are watching closely.
