GE Vernova Hitachi will build its BWRX-300 modular reactors in Tennessee and Alabama under a $40 billion agreement signed between Japan and the United States. The deal sits at the core of the second Japanese investment package on American soil, worth a combined $73 billion, which also covers gas-fired power plants in Pennsylvania and Texas.
The nuclear project alone targets an installed capacity of 3 gigawatts, to be achieved by deploying multiple BWRX-300 units rated at 300 megawatts each. In Alabama, the most likely site is the former Bellefonte plant, near Hollywood in Jackson County — a 1,600-acre property roughly 70 kilometers from Huntsville that has already been assessed by the Tennessee Valley Authority for nuclear development. The agreement was announced on March 19, 2026, on the sidelines of a White House meeting between President Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi.
The BWRX-300 is a boiling water reactor that draws on the technical advancements of GE-Hitachi’s ESBWR design. GE Vernova Hitachi is a joint venture established in 2007 between Japan’s Hitachi and America’s GE Vernova. The U.S. project adds to one already under way in Canada: construction of the first BWRX-300 began in May 2025 at Ontario Power Generation’s Darlington New Nuclear Project. The United States thus becomes the second active market for this reactor model.
The nuclear investment fits within the broader $550 billion trade framework that Tokyo negotiated with Washington to avoid a 25% tariff on its exports. The first package covered liquefied natural gas and critical minerals, including a facility in Ohio. The second, totaling $73 billion, adds SMRs along with the gas plants in Pennsylvania and Texas. Both sides are now working on a third package focused on artificial intelligence and semiconductors. Japan’s chief negotiator Akazawa confirmed that no additional tariffs on Japanese goods are currently planned.
For Alabama, the project represents a significant scale-up from the state’s already well-established nuclear history. Alabama is home to TVA’s Browns Ferry plant in Limestone County, one of the largest nuclear facilities in the United States. The Bellefonte site saw a previous development attempt in the 1970s, which was abandoned in 1988 after a $6 billion investment. It now returns to the table with an entirely different technology. Construction timelines, the final number of units, and the regulatory process before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission have not yet been officially disclosed. Further details are expected in the coming months as engineering work and federal environmental assessments progress.
If the project reaches full capacity, three gigawatts of modular nuclear power across two Southeastern states could set a concrete benchmark for the commercial-scale deployment of SMRs. The BWRX-300 has already received regulatory recognition in Canada and Poland. A rollout of this magnitude in the United States — backed by Japanese capital and technology developed through a joint venture — could establish an industrial standard for Western markets.
