US funding for Thai SMR feasibility study

The US Trade and Development Agency has agreed to fund a feasibility study into small modular reactor deployment in Thailand. The study, signed with Thailand's Electricity Generating Authority in September 2026, will assess potential sites, costs and regulatory pathways for about 600 MWe of SMR capacity. The study will be vendor-neutral, examining designs from seven US companies including NuScale, Westinghouse, GE-Hitachi, TerraPower and Kairos Power. A US firm will conduct the work via a request for proposals process. The USTDA simultaneously highlighted an earlier commitment of USD2.7 million for a similar study in the Philippines.

Where this fits

This represents a deliberate US strategy to position American nuclear vendors in the Indo-Pacific ahead of China's established dominance in renewables and battery supply chains. Thailand and the Philippines are both moving toward firm power to back weather-dependent grids, and both are choosing to examine nuclear instead of defaulting to gas or coal. The study tilts toward the firm-power case: both countries recognise that a renewables-only system requires either massive gas firming or unproven long-duration storage, and are exploring the alternative that delivers reliable, low-emission output without Chinese supply-chain dependence.

What it means

Australia is watching from the sidelines while regional peers move to nuclear feasibility work and US vendors mobilise. A country that has banned nuclear generation by law is ceding both the energy-security option and the diplomatic position as vendors and governments lock in partnerships. If Thailand or the Philippines deploy SMRs successfully, Australia will face a widening gap: a grid increasingly dependent on Chinese panels, batteries and inverters, while neighbours secure diversified, sovereign energy infrastructure backed by firm generation.