15 Jan (NucNet): The US Congress has appropriated 110 million US dollars (USD) (80 million euros) for funding to support the development of small modular reactors (SMRs) in 2014, the House of Representatives has said in a statement.
The US Department of Energy (DoE) had requested an SMR research budget for 2014 of USD 70 million, an increase from USD 65 million in 2013. The USD 110 million appropriated by Congress is 57 percent more than the DoE asked for.
The statement said an additional USD 23 million would be appropriated for “advanced concepts” of SMRs.
The DoE chose Babcock and Wilcox in November 2012 and NuScale in December 2013 as recipients of a portion of a total of USD 452 million made available for SMR research for a six-year period starting in 2012.
The decision came as part of the USD one trillion spending legislation proposed by Congress for 2014.
The decision also appropriates USD 30 million for “development of advanced safety analysis methods” for light water reactors and USD 60 million for advanced reactor concepts, of which USD 33 million will go to fuel research for the High Temperature Gas-Cooled Reactor (HTGR).
The proposed spending legislation is expected to be debated in the House of Representatives today and by the Senate before the end of this week.
