The Carbon Free Power Project (CFPP), the country’s first commercial small modular reactor project, has been cancelled by NuScale Power, a group of local electric utilities that had agreed to purchase power from the project. The project was set to be located near Idaho Falls, Idaho, at the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory and was supposed to come online in 2029. However, substantial cost overruns and delays from its intended operational date led utilities to withdraw from a 2019 agreement to buy 200 MW from the reactors once completed. NuScale is the only U.S. developer with a design approved by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for a small modular reactors. The company’s president and CEO, John Hopkins, projected certainty that it will still be able to bring its SMR design into reality in the future. Despite the cancellation, advanced nuclear advocates remain confident in the viability of SMRs.
Solar Dominates US Energy Capacity Growth
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has published data showing that solar accounted for over 75% of US electrical generating
