The new federal funding is aimed at building market confidence that the U.S. nuclear industry will be able to incorporate the lessons learned at Vogtle to deliver a new round of safer, more efficient SMRs on time and on budget.

The first new reactors built in the U.S. since 2016, Vogtle’s two units have come online seven years late and $17 billion over budget, leaving subsequent projects surrounded by perceptions of risk.

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on Thursday looked into the state of advanced nuclear reactors just weeks after NuScale Power and Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems terminated a once promising pilot project.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott directed the PUC to study how to position the state "as the national leader on advanced nuclear energy."

Icy weather knocked more than 400,000 Texas customers offline last week, but all outages were at the local distribution level.