John Kerry, working on the sidelines of US Climate Action, announced the winners of Project Phoenix and a new US initiative called NEXT, short for Nuclear Expediting the Energy Transition Porgram, as part of the State Department's FIRST Program. Czechia, Slovakia and Poland were selected to participate in Project Phoenix and receive support for coal-to-SMR feasibility studies. 

In a September 7, 2023 announcement issued by the State Department we learn about progress that has been made in a State Department program called Foundational Infrastructure for the Responsible Use of Small Modular Reactor Technology (FIRST).

Building on his announcement of Project Phoenix at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Sharm El Sheikh (COP27), Secretary Kerry announced that project proposals from Czechia, Slovakia, and Poland were competitively selected to participate in Project Phoenix and will receive support for coal-to-SMR feasibility studies.

So, while at the Three Seas Iniative Summit in Bucharest, Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry announced the Project Phoenix winners and a new initiative for the U.S. to accelerate the transition to clean energy which furthers the role of "new, secure, and safe nuclear technologies." 

This is the NEXT program, short for Nuclear Expediting the Energy Transition, with One Stop Shop for SMR Support.  The NEXT effort will provide countries in Europe and Eurasia that are approaching SMR deployment decisions at the NEXT virtual center where they can apply for a suite of advanced project preparation tools and services.  These services may include in-person technical, financial, and regulatory consultancies and advisory services; expert study tours to visit U.S. nuclear facilities, national laboratories, and universities; competitively selected provision of an SMR simulator to support workforce development.

Project Phoenix and NEXT One Stop Shop are subprograms of the U.S. Department of State’s Foundational Infrastructure for the Responsible Use of Small Modular Reactor Technology (FIRST) Program. The United States is committed to supporting the use of innovative, safe, and secure clean energy technologies to power global decarbonization efforts, advance energy security worldwide, and provide options to achieve net zero transition in hard-to-abate energy sectors.

Read The State Department's Announcement at: Special Presidential Envoy for Climate Kerry Announces Project Phoenix Participants and the Nuclear Expediting the Energy Transition (NEXT) Program, September 7, 2023.

For extra color on the benefits of the Coal-to-Nuclear transition, see Level Up your coal plant by giving it a nuclear reactor!, publishd to Youtube by Thies Becker.