Bechtel and TerraPower could not agree on the next phase of the Natrium plant at Kemmerer, sending the contract back out to bid and putting about 200 Bechtel workers in Virginia on notice.
In context: One question got two different answers this week: who actually builds the reactor. Samsung C&T took an equity stake and a balance-of-plant role at Kairos Power's Oak Ridge plant while the contract in Wyoming went back out to bid, and a new joint cost study from the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency and EPRI put numbers on what each path costs.
Market signal
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▲ News hot
Georgia Power files a new uprate tariff with Google as the subscriber; Samsung C&T signs a binding term sheet for up to $100 million toward Kairos Power's Hermes 2
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▼ Market cold
Holtec suspends its IPO September 16, a day before pricing
Oklo (OKLO) 3.5% lower to $39.04
NuScale (SMR) 2.4% lower to $8.68
closes, September 23
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Holtec pulled a $900 million offering the day before it was due to price, after what chief executive Kris Singh called a sharp shift in market sentiment against the AI data center economy, though the registration stays live and the company has a three to six month window to try again. Demand for the power held up even as that equity window closed, and five days later Georgia Power filed a tariff funding new uprate capacity for one hyperscaler customer. Oklo and NuScale each rose more than 5% the day of that filing and gave it back within two sessions, a move inside their ordinary weekly range and too small to read as a standout signal.
This week at a glance
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It combines direct investment with in-kind engineering, and TechCrunch reports the equity portion at roughly $70 million. Samsung C&T also joins the project team for power generation and balance of plant. Hermes 2 is to supply 50 MWe to the TVA grid under a multi-plant development agreement with Google.
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The Army conditionally selected three companies to negotiate long-term leases for onsite power at
six installationsAmeresco, Indelible-Bloom and Frontier Power USA are the selected developers, under the Army's Strategic Capital Initiatives program. Ameresco's Aberdeen Proving Ground plan is gas first, with a Terrestrial Energy molten salt reactor to follow. ANS describes these projects as apparently unrelated to the Army's Janus program.
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The nuclear memorandum was expected last week. ANS reports hesitance among US officials about deploying Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power's APR1400 design in the United States. Korea has committed to a Texas gas plant; the nuclear portion is unresolved.
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MassDEP dismissed the appeal September 15, holding that the treated water is industrial waste the Ocean Sanctuaries Act bars from the bay. Other coastal decommissioning projects now have a state-law precedent to plan a disposal route around.
Source → live map at getentel.com/nukemap
Stat of the week
$39
The low end, per megawatt-hour, of what it costs to run a reactor that already exists, counting what it takes to operate and refurbish rather than what it cost to build. The OECD Nuclear Energy Agency and EPRI priced 23 generating technologies and put existing nuclear at $39 to $64, the lowest mean and median of any of them. A large reactor built today runs $95 to $168, and that falls to $56 to $87 once the same design has been built over and over.
In depth
Reference: terms in this issue
EPC contract: Engineering, procurement and construction. One contract under which a single firm designs the plant, buys the equipment and builds it, under one schedule and one price structure.
Extended power uprate: An NRC-approved package of equipment changes, usually to turbines, pumps and cooling systems, that raises how much power a reactor is licensed to produce.
Zero-emission credit: A certificate representing the carbon-free attributes of nuclear generation, credited separately from the electricity itself.
Rural Electrification Act borrower: A cooperative that holds or once held a loan under that Act, which is the eligibility test for most USDA electric programs.
Construction
Bechtel Leaves Natrium and the Contract Goes Back Out
Before: Bechtel carried the early phases of Natrium Kemmerer Unit 1, the sodium-cooled fast reactor in Wyoming, including the work behind its NRC construction permit, while the full EPC scope was still undetermined.
Now: The two companies failed to agree on the next phase and have
decided to move forward separately. Bechtel filed a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification with the Virginia Department of Workforce Development and Advancement on September 15 covering approximately 200 positions, with reductions expected on or about November 16. Bechtel stays at the Kemmerer site to finish the Natrium sodium test and fill facility and to support an orderly transition. TerraPower says the contract will be rebid and that it still targets construction completion at Kemmerer-1 in 2030 and commercial operation by 2031. Hyundai Engineering and Construction is separately lined up as EPC contractor for up to eight of TerraPower's 345 MWe units.
Watch: Whether the 2030 completion date survives a rebid
Deal
Google Backs 96 MWe of Uprates at Vogtle and Hatch
Before: The Georgia Public Service Commission approved an extended power uprate for Vogtle 1 and 2 in the 2025 Integrated Resource Plan. Hatch had no approved uprate.
Now: Georgia Power filed an agreement with Google on September 21 that would add approximately 96 MWe across its owned portions of Vogtle 1 and 2, and Hatch 1 and 2. Google would subscribe to a new
Nuclear Uprate (NU-1) tariff and receive the Zero-Emission Credits, and Georgia Power projects approximately $900 million in benefits to its 2.8 million customers over the life of the units. The filings, in dockets 44280 and 56002, also ask the commission to approve a matching uprate for Hatch 1 and 2. The whole arrangement needs Georgia PSC approval.
Watch: Whether the commission approves the NU-1 tariff as filed
Market
USDA Opens a $175 Million Nuclear Program for Rural Co-ops
Before: Federal nuclear money has come through DOE loans, DOE pilot programs and the Defense Department. Rural electric cooperatives already co-own operating reactors, but no federal program targeted their nuclear plans specifically.
Now: USDA opened the
Affordable Rural Cooperative Program with $175 million, capped at $20 million per recipient. Current and former Rural Electrification Act borrowers can use it to build, upgrade or buy nuclear generation, to purchase all or a share of a plant, to build transmission for new generation, or to buy nuclear power under a power purchase agreement. Preaward costs and interest during construction are reimbursable. The letter of interest window runs October 19 to November 20, invited applicants then get 90 days to file, and awards are anticipated in summer or fall 2027.
Watch: How many cooperatives file letters of interest before November 20
Global signal
Canada
Ontario awarded
more than C$3 billion of Pickering contracts, with C$1.7 billion covering retube, feeder and boiler work on Pickering 5, and units 6 to 8 following in later phases.
Refurbishment begins January 2027, subject to final regulatory approval.
Question of the week
“Google is backing 96 MWe of uprates at two Georgia stations that have been running since the 1970s and 80s. If you needed firm power this decade, where would you put the money: uprates, restarts, or a first-of-a-kind build?
Reply to this email with your take.
The open beta, October 1
The Wire is the research. The application is where that research lives: 31 projects, the stage each one sits on, and the filing that put it there. Ninety days free, no card. What we ask back is that you tell us the day a row is wrong.
Until next Thursday,
Jace Arnold
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