Milestone-based cost shareThe government pays fixed amounts only when named milestones complete, so overruns between milestones stay with the developer.
The DOE/Kairos Technology Investment Agreement: a $629M Hermes 1 project with DOE paying up to $303M against fixed milestones. (2024-02.) Source ↗
50/50 demonstration cost shareDOE matches project spend up to a ceiling, halving the private capital a first unit needs.
ARDP: X-energy's award of up to $1.2B at 50/50 to develop, license, build, and demonstrate the first Xe-100 plant and fuel facility. (2020-10.) Source ↗
Defense delivery agreementA delivery deadline, not a study: the contract obliges a working unit at a base by a date.
Radiant's ANPI agreement with DIU and the Department of the Air Force: a mass-manufactured Kaleidos delivered within 36 months. (2025-08.) Source ↗
Order book with per-plant PPAsOne master agreement commits a fleet; each plant closes its own PPA as it matures. The buyer gets optionality, the developer gets a book that supply chains can invest against.
Google-Kairos Master Plant Development Agreement: up to 500 MW by 2035. (2024-10.) Source ↗
Customer-funded developmentThe offtaker pays development costs directly instead of waiting to buy power, converting a future PPA into present-day project capital.
Amazon and Energy Northwest's Carbon Free Development and Funding Agreement for Cascade's initial 320 MWe phase. (2024-10.) Source ↗
Power prepaymentThe buyer prepays for future electricity, financing construction from the demand side without taking equity.
The Meta-Oklo agreement for up to 1.2 GW in Ohio lets Meta prepay for power and fund project development. (2026-01.) Source ↗
Prepayment for optionalityA deposit today buys first claim on capacity tomorrow: real money moves while the offtake itself stays unsigned.
Equinix prepaid Oklo $25M under a pre-agreement carrying a 36-month right of first refusal on up to 500 MWe; the offtake beyond the prepayment is non-binding. (2024-04.) Source ↗
Factory preorder with depositsDeposits against factory units, the aircraft-order model applied to reactors. Deposits fund the line; the book justifies the factory.
Equinix preorder and deposits for 20 Radiant Kaleidos microreactors. (2025-08.) Source ↗
Developer-owned build with PPAsThe developer finances, owns, and operates its own units and sells power under PPAs it originates, keeping control of price and pace.
Last Energy's 34 executed PPAs across Poland and the UK: 680 MW, roughly $18.9B in power sales. (2024-03.) Source ↗
Exclusive commercialization partnerA partner develops, finances, owns, and operates every plant; the reactor company stays a technology licensor.
ENTRA1 Energy, NuScale's exclusive global commercial partner. (2025-09.) Source ↗
Utility self-build in rate baseA utility builds and owns the plant, recovering cost through regulated rates or public-power revenue, the model that financed the existing U.S. fleet.
Vogtle 3&4: Georgia Power's completed ~2.2 GW expansion, the model's latest executed instance, delivered at ~$32.3B of capital. (2025-06.) Source ↗
PPA with fleet-expansion optionA power contract on an existing asset embeds an option on future units, giving the next reactor a buyer before it exists.
The Palisades PPA carries a contract expansion provision covering up to two SMR-300 units Holtec intends to build at the site. (2023-09.) Source ↗
Government profit participationFederal financing support is exchanged for a share of upside above a return threshold, an equity-like claim without equity.
The U.S. government-Westinghouse partnership announced October 2025: an ~$80B deployment frame carrying a federal claim on 20% of cash distributions above a $17.5B return threshold. (2025-10.) Source ↗
Regulated asset base (UK)Consumers pay a regulated charge during construction, cutting financing costs by years of carry; the state co-invests and shares overrun risk.
Sizewell C: the first nuclear RAB, around £38B, final investment decision July 2025 with the UK government as largest shareholder. (2025-07.) Source ↗