Japan is earmarking up to $40 billion for the construction of GE Vernova Hitachi BWRX-300 small modular reactors in Tennessee and Alabama. The project is part of the Japan-U.S. Strategic Investment, the fund born out of the trade agreement between Washington and Tokyo, and was announced by the US Department of Commerce together with two gas-fired plants.
The announcement coincided with the March 19 White House meeting between President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi. The energy package also includes gas plants in Pennsylvania, worth up to $17 billion, and in Texas, worth up to $16 billion, for a total of about $33 billion. The power generated will be used, among other things, to supply data centers located next to the plants. The operations will be financed by the Japan Bank for International Cooperation and a number of commercial banks, with guarantees from Nippon Export and Investment Insurance.
The broader picture is larger still. Japan has pledged to invest $550 billion in the United States, with up to $327 billion directed to energy projects and a significant share going to nuclear. According to reports, about $100 billion concerns GE Vernova and Hitachi SMRs, while another tranche supports Westinghouse in building AP1000 reactors and SMRs, with possible partnerships involving Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Toshiba and IHI. For the first projects, around $46 billion in concessional financing is planned through JBIC.
The driver is electricity demand, which is growing with the expansion of data centers for artificial intelligence. Washington is looking for stable sources of power to keep energy prices in check. In return, Tokyo gets tariffs on its products capped at 15% and a place for its industries in the American nuclear supply chain. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick described it as an opportunity to build an SMR supply chain together for export worldwide.
The next step could be NuScale Power. According to the Nikkei, cited by the Korean press, a Japanese investment of up to $25 billion in the US company is under discussion as the third item of the program. Japan aims to allocate more than 10 trillion yen to SMRs. Construction timelines have not yet been announced, and the reactors will need to obtain licenses before connecting to the grid, but the Tennessee sites are already named among the candidates.
If the first BWRX-300 units move into construction, the United States will have a reference fleet to show to overseas markets. In September, the United States, Japan and South Korea already signed an agreement to bring the same reactor to Europe, with GE Vernova, Hitachi, Samsung C&T and Poland’s SGE.
