The State Department announced a civil-nuclear initiative on September 23 that brings together American, Japanese, South Korean and Polish industry participants. According to the department, the consortium aims to deliver reliable nuclear power across Europe and promote more than $150 billion in reactor investment in the coming years.

The $150 billion figure is a forward-looking estimate of investment the initiative seeks to encourage, not evidence that the money has already been committed or spent. Individual projects would still require financing, customer agreements, regulatory approvals, licensing and site-specific development before reactors could be built.

The initiative builds on a July agreement among the United States, Japan and South Korea to cooperate on deploying small modular reactors in third countries. That earlier agreement initially emphasized the Indo-Pacific; the new announcement adds Polish industry and a specific European focus.

Poland is already pursuing small-reactor projects. GE Vernova Hitachi Nuclear Energy said in February that Orlen Synthos Green Energy intends to develop a fleet of BWRX-300 reactors in Poland as part of a broader European deployment effort. The consortium announcement does not establish that all of the projected investment will use one reactor design.