Report on DFC’s Financing 

Nuclear Energy-Related 

Projects Overseas 

March 2024 

Submitted Pursuant to H. Rept. 118-146 and S. Rept. 118-71 
Background 

DFC is committed to supporting nuclear energy in line with its potential to advance several 

key objectives for the U.S. Government and Congress. These include the contributions 

nuclear energy can make to climate change mitigation by providing clean baseload power 

that supports low-carbon power systems. This is captured in U.S. support for the 

declaration to triple nuclear power by 2050. Nuclear energy can also support efforts to 

strengthen energy security and limit countries’ exposure to the use of energy as a political 

tool by reducing their dependence on energy imports from malign actors like Russia. The 

United States also has an opportunity to leverage its technological leadership in a growing 

international nuclear energy industry to drive job creation and economic activity 

domestically. 

Growing interest in nuclear energy has been matched by new developments in the sector 

in the past several years, including in the United States. This includes the commissioning 

in 2023 of the first new nuclear power plant in the United States in 30 years as well as 

efforts to extend the lifetime of some nuclear plants in other locations. U.S. companies 

have also been at the forefront of developing new technologies to create more flexibility 

and contribute to lower costs and quicker investment timelines in the form of small 

modular reactors (SMRs) and other advanced designs. Several of these technologies 

have initiated key licensing and regulatory processes in the United States and abroad. 

The U.S. Government has also engaged in intensive diplomacy to support nuclear energy 

investment around the world, including through several intergovernmental agreements 

(IGAs), technical assistance facilities such as the FIRST program and Project Phoenix, 

and high-level advocacy to prioritize and advance nuclear energy. These efforts are 

expected to contribute to more mature opportunities for agencies like DFC to invest in 

nuclear energy by building capacity and raising awareness of U.S. technologies. 

Activity to Date 

DFC changed its Environmental and Social Policies and Procedures (ESPP) in 2020 to 

enable the Corporation to invest in nuclear power projects following a voluntary 30-day 

public comment period during which the agency solicited feedback from key stakeholders 

including Congress, peer U.S. Government agencies, the private sector, and NGOs. 

DFC’s predecessor agency (the Overseas Private Investment Corporation – OPIC) had 

been prohibited from supporting projects in the industry. Since this change, DFC has 

taken several steps to identify and advance opportunities to support nuclear energy. Key 

activities are summarized here. 

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Engaging with the Market 

 Generating credible new transaction leads overseas. DFC is in early-stage 

project discussions with several nuclear energy project sponsors, which is a 

reflection of a concerted business development effort undertaken over the course 

of the last three years. Certain projects are promising, and as a result DFC has 

signed several letters of interest (LOIs) to express interest in considering 

applications for financing for those nuclear energy projects. 

o This includes three LOIs signed with nuclear technology developer NuScale 

Power for projects in South Africa, Indonesia, and Romania. The Romania 

LOI was later updated to include the project sponsor, RoPower, as DFC’s 

potential counterpart and noted DFC’s interest in reviewing applications for 

financing for this project. 

o DFC also signed an LOI with a Polish company, OSGE, for two SMR 

projects using GE/Hitachi technology, and is expressing interest in 

reviewing applications for financing for these projects in the future. 

 Coordinating with industry at home and abroad. DFC participates regularly in 

meetings with industry groups and the private sector. These include industry 

briefings, such as the quarterly Civil Nuclear Trade Advisory Committee (CINTAC) 

meetings hosted by the International Trade Administration, and business 

development and public engagement activities at industry conferences such as the 

New Nuclear Capital Summit and Nuclear Energy Security Summit in November 

2023, and the Three Seas Initiative Summit in September 2023. 

Interagency and International Government Engagement 

 DFC is closely engaged in U.S. interagency activities to coordinate on nuclear 

energy promotion efforts. This includes joining biweekly Team USA interagency 

meetings on civil nuclear energy, participating in monthly working group meetings 

on the Romania SMR project. 

 DFC participates in interagency technical review processes to identify options to 

support nuclear energy investment in Poland under the auspices of the IGA signed 

between Poland and the United States in 2020. 

 DFC regularly meets with foreign government counterparts from countries such as 

Romania, Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, and others to discuss 

opportunities for DFC support to nuclear energy projects. 

 Recognizing the agency’s limited experience with nuclear energy projects, DFC is 

working to create a mechanism to access technical expertise from the Department 

of Energy. DFC will leverage this expertise to support our investment teams in 

screening new project opportunities and establishing a more robust operational 

framework for assessment and due diligence of nuclear energy projects. 

Strengthening Internal Capacity for Nuclear Energy Investment 

 In January 2024, DFC initiated an organizational realignment that included the 

creation of the Office of Energy, which will combine staff covering DFC’s different 

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investment products to focus on investments in the energy sector. The Office of 

Energy will include a point person for investment in nuclear energy. DFC also hired 

a policy officer focused on the energy sector to strengthen coordination with 

interagency and industry stakeholders. 

 DFC has also undertaken an internal mapping exercise of the Corporation’s 

investment products to identify which of our tools could be most useful for different 

projects or companies at different points in the lifecycle of nuclear investments. 

This has informed discussions with private sector stakeholders and foreign 

government stakeholders to better explain DFC’s investment model and criteria 

and identify gaps and opportunities for collaboration in the future. 

Near-Term Paths for Financing Nuclear Energy 

DFC is committed to finding opportunities to invest in nuclear energy projects in the 

markets where it works. However, DFC’s ability to provide financing for nuclear energy 

projects in the near-term faces several key challenges: 

 DFC is tracking developments in the nuclear energy space closely as the 

Corporation seeks to identify mature projects that would match DFC’s investment 

criteria. DFC has identified SMRs as stronger matches with its investment model 

due to their lower capital costs and more frequent inclusion of private sector 

companies and financing. As new technologies for civil nuclear energy, SMRs 

have not been deployed commercially to date and initial efforts to underwrite these 

projects will be complex. These technologies also lack full licensing and regulatory 

approvals in the United States and abroad. As these circumstances change, DFC 

will be in a better position to bring financing solutions such as loans or loan 

guaranties to bear on the sector, and DFC staff are watching progress closely. 

 DFC has established an initial internal due diligence framework for nuclear energy 

projects. In doing so, DFC drew on established processes in peer U.S. 

Government agencies, including the Export-Import Bank, to build on existing 

expertise and knowledge within the government. However, DFC staff have limited 

expertise in underwriting and undertaking due diligence on nuclear energy 

projects, which present several unique characteristics related to financing, 

technical, and market factors, and environmental and social assessment. Further, 

due diligence of large investments with substantial environmental and social risks, 

legal and regulatory complexities, and commercial risks will require significant staff 

time and resources. 

 DFC’s opportunity to invest at earlier stages in the project lifecycle would require 

the use of its equity or technical assistance products, both of which are dependent 

on funds using annual appropriations, which are in limited supply. These funds are 

in high demand at DFC, and nuclear energy is in competition with all of DFC’s 

other priorities, including many sectors and projects where there is a more direct 

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path to near-term impact and less risk associated with projects failing to proceed 

despite DFC’s investment. 

 Nuclear energy projects are among the most capital-intensive investments in any 

sector, with conventional nuclear projects in the tens of billions of dollars and 

SMRs slated to be multibillion-dollar investments. DFC may face questions about 

additionality in the context of existing project exposure limits (both statutory and 

linked to internal policies) where DFC’s financing would represent a relatively small 

share of total investment costs. DFC’s flexibility in deploying different investment 

tools could reduce concerns on this front. However, DFC’s ability to support highcost investments using technologies in early stages of deployment with long 

development timelines is also challenged by the Corporation’s maximum 

contingent liability. Tying up billions of dollars in nuclear energy projects that exhibit 

higher risks compared with many other potential investments would reduce the 

availability of resources for other priorities. 

DFC has identified the following factors as critical to its ability to support nuclear energy 

moving forward: 

 As described above, additional effort is required to address broader constraints to 

nuclear energy investments including through demonstrated deployment of new 

technologies and more progress on regulatory and licensing processes in new 

countries. DFC is supportive of efforts by the U.S. Government to support domestic 

deployment of new technologies to further prove their commercial viability and to 

support foreign governments, regulatory institutions, and energy companies to 

prepare for nuclear energy deployment. 

 DFC’s ability to deploy its equity authority effectively is constrained by budgetary 

rules that require the Corporation to account for equity on a dollar-by-dollar basis. 

A congressional alter to the budgetary treatment of equity would allow DFC to 

deploy equity that could support nuclear energy, and other projects, at earlier 

stages without significantly reducing the availability of resources for other priorities. 

 DFC recommends an increased emphasis on support and consideration for 

financial structuring at early stages of nuclear energy projects abroad. Companies 

and governments need to factor in clear strategies to finance their projects 

including by seeking private capital, clarifying market strategies, and securing 

complementary public support. These efforts would provide DFC with better 

opportunities to support projects that are aligned with its investment model and 

criteria while attracting new forms of capital to expand the sector. 

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