This week, the US Department of Energy made two substantial financial awards to two SMR builders who each proposed 300 MW units. GE-Hitachi’s BWRX 300 will be built at a TVA facility, Clinch River in east Tennessee, while the two planned Holtec units are for repowering the Palisades nuclear plant in Michigan. The awards are for $400 million apiece with an additional $100 million available for “contingencies”. There were several things that struck us about the DoE’s award, which originated in the Biden administration. First,…