Yesterday morning as Amazon, X-energy, Energy Northwest, and Dominion Energy were sharing a spotlight celebrating their investment in X-energy’s high-temperature gas-cooled reactor technology, the Department of Energy opened up the application process for up to $900 million in cost-shared funding to support the initial domestic deployment of a different type of reactor—light water reactors generating about 300 MWe that the DOE calls Gen III+ small modular reactors.

The Department of Energy’s Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations issued a final environmental assessment (EA) and finding of no significant impact in February for a cost-shared X-energy project to construct and operate a helium test facility (HTF) in Oak Ridge, Tenn. According to the EA, construction would begin in early 2024 and take X-energy and its contracted partner, Kinectrics, about one year to complete. the facility would then operate for six years, with the possibility of extensions for up to an additional 20 years, to test equipment for a demonstration of X-energy’s high-temperature, gas-cooled reactor technology and also to “serve the reactor community at large as the technology continues to develop and is adopted around the world.”

The Department of Energy last week announced up to $450 million in funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to advance clean energy demonstration projects at current and former mine sites. The law, officially the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, was signed by President Biden in November 2021.