I think all of these projects are coming together primarily to replace the existing nuclear plants. As the older plants reach the end of their operational life, there's still a desire for fission power; building a new plant with the old designs doesn't work for a lot of reasons, so hopefully new designs that take into account 40-60 years of operational, construction, and regulatory experience will make it possible to fill the void. I'm sure all the teams are also hoping to broaden the market for fission power too; if they can show the ability to build reactors in reasonable timelines and with reasonable budgets and operability, it could happen. If not, these are likely to be the last generation of fission plants (aside from naval applications)
It's always been a problem that the current way we do reactors involves lots of one-off designs, with gigantic powerplants that require too much red tape to get finished in a reasonable time frame.
Now instead of that have a small modular core that is certified to high heaven and can be mass produced. It would cut down maintenance, deployment, construction, everything. I truly think this is a fantastic way towards a net zero future.
