On Thursday, Framatome officially opened the doors to its newly upgraded facility on Mill Ridge Road in Lynchburg. The $50 million expansion is partially designed to support the development of small modular reactors (SMRs)— compact, factory-built nuclear units that industry leaders say could be faster and cheaper to build than traditional nuclear plants.

The BWXT Innovation Campus features laboratories where the Advanced Technologies team is designing, building and testing advanced nuclear systems for NASA, the Department of Energy, the Department of Defense, state governments, national research labs and commercial customers.