Partner Insight: How Governments are Crowding In Market Capital
In the past 12 months nuclear deployment has drawn ground-breaking levels of market capital in the US, UK and Canada. Market additionality has been successfully incentivized with extensive public resources in each case, but in very different ways. At the recent session of our nuclear financing briefing series, senior leaders from public and private sectors explored the various ways in which governments and commercial finance are collaborating worldwide to bring forward needed investments in nuclear capacity and infrastructure.
Hosted by White & Case LLP at their Paris offices on 9 April 2026, the discussion focused on the theme: Government support packages – how much is enough, how much is sustainable?
We were joined on the panel by Anna Wiland, Senior Adviser, Rothschild, Huw Williams, Head of Investor Relations, Nuclear Projects Finance, UK Department for Energy Security & Net Zero (DESNZ), Jeroen Trimpe Burger, Finance Lead, Nuclear Energy Organization NL (NEO NL), Martin Menski, Partner, White & Case LLP (Washington).
The emergence of multiple financing models around the world
Nuclear investment opportunities and signals are growing but incentive structures are highly differentiated. Commercial finance is mobilizing in radically different ways across the US, UK and EU markets:
United States
A powerful combination of federal cost-share, tax credits, state‑level incentives and regulatory flexibility is incentivizing significant volumes of equity for early-stage SMR and Advanced Reactor first-of-a-kind (FOAK) development on a first-of-a-fleet basis. On the other hand, project finance is being deployed in lower volumes and for only a limited number of large reactor life-time-operation (LTOs), restarts and uprates (as opposed to for newbuild projects).
Central & Eastern Europe
The pressing clean energy imperatives in the EU for security and affordability are driving the Central and Eastern European markets (both expansion and newcomer) toward direct sovereign participation and underwriting. This is due to limited state-owned enterprise (SOE) and private organizational and financial capacities. Governments are building (or helping build) owner-operator organizations from scratch, such as PEJ EDU II (Polskie Elektrownie Jądrowe, Poland’s state‑owned company responsible for delivering the country’s first nuclear power programme, including development of EDU II) and NEO NL. From a financial perspective, governments are taking the majority of the equity and equity-like risks under project structures that are designed to enable ECA-backed project finance (PF) with commercial banks. The EU 2-way CfD model, which caps equity upside, combined with growing leniency as to what constitutes legal state aid (e.g. Czechia, Poland) may be acting to suppress market equity appetite. On the other hand, extensive government downside protection through revenue and direct financing is helping mobilize large volumes of market debt on a limited recourse basis.
United Kingdom
The UK’s Regulated Asset Base (RAB) model provides an interesting middle ground benchmark on public/private finance and risk sharing. Sizewell C has demonstrated that nuclear newbuild equity and debt can be auctioned by government and raised on a commercial basis, like for most heavy infrastructure, though lead times to financial close (approximately 6 years from the initial RAB pre-legislation public consultation) may still be prohibitive in most markets. The UK newbuild market will perhaps continue to act as a pathfinder globally, as Great British Energy-Nuclear (GBE-N) embarks on competitive procurement of SMRs and the AR Roadmap is implemented.
These developments create a wide range of potential risk-sharing and financial arrangements for technology vendors, investors, utilities, and supply‑chain partners.
SMRs: A high-potential but not yet bankable opportunity
Speakers recognized SMRs as a transformative opportunity for commercial equity and debt. The expected improved deployment model and risk profile could close risk and funding gaps that have stalled historical growth targets in the large reactor sector. SMRs can potentially be financed with a more standardized government support package, likely featuring less support overall. As commercial finance increasingly leans into the SMR opportunity, the leading indicators of investability with bankability are likely to include:
- Continued government support and market signaling to level the playing field for nuclear energy
- Outturn costs, schedules and unit performances for pilot reference plants
- Delivery chain capacity and performance
- First-of-a-fleet costs, schedules, unit performance targets and learning rates
- Offtaker capacities, appetite and financial flexibility
Looking Ahead: A shared opportunity
The value proposition of nuclear energy has historically been underwritten by government or utility balance sheets but new models are emerging worldwide offering commercial finance an essential role. Delivering the full potential of nuclear energy will require close partnership between government, industry and commercial finance.
Government support is necessary to level the playing field and kick-start new nuclear programs, but there is no one-size-fits-all government support package. Governments worldwide are developing bespoke public-private investment models to best meet the market where it is, and to provide clear guidance on the limits and sustainability of (direct) government support.
On behalf of the nuclear industry worldwide and its billions of potential end-user beneficiaries, World Nuclear Association looks forward to working with partners across the sector to inform and help shape these models, and support the next generation of competitive nuclear.
To expand global nuclear capacity, and at least triple by 2050, requires faster, clearer investment decisions. World Nuclear Association is bridging the gap between nuclear and finance to help deliver at scale. Read how the Association is leading this effort.
World Nuclear Association thanks White & case LLP for hosting the fourth Financing Nuclear Briefing Series event. Based on feedback from our members and partners in the nuclear and financial communities, the next briefing will take place in June in London. The event is by invitation-only, if you wish to be considered, please contact pippa.eames@world-nuclear.org