The European Industrial Alliance on Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) has recognized 9 SMR initiatives it’s going to help as its first batch of undertaking working teams (PWGs). The trouble marks a big first step towards the alliance’s objective of deploying SMR applied sciences throughout Europe by the early 2030s.
The alliance, a collaborative public-private platform launched by the European Fee in February 2024, mentioned on Oct. 11 it picked its first batch of PWGs from a pool of twenty-two purposes submitted as a part of a June 2024 name for initiatives.
The 9 initiatives recognized at this stage are: EU-SMR-LFR undertaking (Ansaldo Nucleare, SCK-CEN, ENEA, RATEN); CityHeat undertaking (Calogena, Regular Vitality), Challenge Quantum (Final Vitality), European LFR AS Challenge (newcleo), Nuward (EDF), European BWRX-300 SMR (OSGE), Rolls-Royce SMR (Rolls-Royce SMR Ltd), NuScale VOYGR SMR (RoPower Nuclear S.A), and Thorizon One undertaking (Thorizon).
A Vital Alternative to Foster Collaboration
The choices don’t represent direct funding from the alliance. Nonetheless, underneath PWGs, they may have the chance to foster collaboration amongst varied stakeholders, resembling SMR builders, regulators, and provide chain entities, guaranteeing that technical, regulatory, and logistical challenges are addressed effectively.
PWGs are only one a part of the alliance’s broader objectives, which search to ascertain a strong nuclear ecosystem throughout Europe. Along with fostering collaboration on SMR initiatives, the alliance has got down to tackle provide chain gaps, discover new funding fashions, and have interaction key industrial sectors like hydrogen manufacturing. It additionally focuses on elevating public consciousness and growing essential workforce expertise by initiatives just like the proposed Nuclear Abilities Academy.
Whereas the 9 chosen initiatives symbolize the primary wave of SMR improvement underneath the alliance, further initiatives that weren’t chosen on this spherical can have the chance to reapply within the second quarter of 2025 after refining their proposals, the alliance mentioned.
A Vary of Applied sciences Representing A number of Functions
Tasks within the first batch embrace a various vary of reactor designs, from lead-cooled quick reactors and pressurized water reactors (PWRs) to molten salt reactors and micromodular nuclear vegetation. They showcase options for energy era, district heating, and industrial purposes.
EU-SMR-LFR (Ansaldo Nucleare, SCK-CEN, ENEA, RATEN). Led by Ansaldo Nucleare in collaboration with ENEA, the Romanian Institute for Nuclear Analysis-RATEN, and with the participation of the Belgian analysis group SCK-CEN, this undertaking has sought to construct ALFRED, a modular fast-neutron and lead-cooled nuclear reactor that may very well be operational from 2040. “The event path, which has been awarded by the European Fee, consists of the development of two demonstration prototypes (LEANDREA and FALCON) designed to validate the technological decisions, which shall be inbuilt Belgium and Romania respectively,” Ansaldo informed POWER on Friday.
Lead-cooled quick reactors, that are fourth-generation applied sciences, might maintain vital benefits over present applied sciences “with considerably greater gasoline effectivity, excessive working temperatures that may enable thermal in addition to electrical vitality to be equipped, and passive security programs able to intervening with out human motion,” the corporate mentioned. “This expertise may also make it doable to shut the gasoline cycle, reusing spent gasoline from earlier era vegetation and minimizing the quantity of waste.”
“The selection of the European Industrial Alliance on Small Modular Reactors is a vital recognition that confirms the experience of Ansaldo Nucleare and its companions,” mentioned Daniela Gentile, Ansaldo Nucleare’s CEO. “This consequence rewards the technological improvement efforts that our firm, a frontrunner on this expertise, has carried out and strengthened over time, laying the foundations for future financial help from the European Union for our undertaking.”
CityHeat (Calogena, Regular Vitality). Finnish nuclear startup Regular Vitality has developed the LDR-50, a 50-MW PWR working at low temperatures. It says the reactor may be deployed inside seven years, together with licensing, at a value of €100 million. Particularly designed to supply warmth as much as 150C, the LDR-50 is optimized for district heating, industrial steam manufacturing, and desalination initiatives.
Regular Vitality plans to begin developing a pilot plant in Finland subsequent 12 months to check its performance and undertaking administration capabilities. The pilot, differing from an precise reactor solely in that it’ll use an electrical heater as an alternative of nuclear gasoline, will pave the best way for additional installations. Potential places embrace Helsinki, Kuopio, Espoo, and Lahti. The corporate is concentrating on operations of its first business plant by 2030. Regular Vitality up to now has agreements with End utilities Keravan Energia and Kuopian Energia. The Kuopion undertaking deliberate for japanese Finland is notably within the pre-investment section, with zoning and environmental allowing “beginning quickly,” the corporate says.
“Throughout Europe, vitality corporations face the problem of changing a whole lot of ageing warmth vegetation which can be nearing the tip of their lifecycle. With round 3,000 warmth vegetation needing renewal, a big shift to zero-emission options is essential to keep up world habitability,” the corporate notes. “Every reactor prices €100 million, and Europe alone might shortly want 300 of those items. There’s a want for one more 300 if we’re to decarbonize desalination in addition to industrial warmth manufacturing,” it mentioned.
Challenge Quantum (Final Vitality). Final Vitality, a full-service developer of 20 MWe “plug and play” micro modular nuclear energy vegetation, has secured business agreements for 80 items, and the corporate has set formidable objectives to construct 10,000 items throughout the subsequent 15 years. “Final Vitality differentiates itself throughout the nuclear sector by focusing all technological innovation on excessive throughput manufacturability, reasonably than the trade’s historic deal with novel reactor core physics,” it notes. To this point, the American firm is concentrating on key markets in Poland, Romania, and the UK. Of Final Vitality’s agreements, 39 of the 80 items shall be constructed to serve knowledge heart builders, it notes.
European LFR AS (newcleo). Italian agency newcleo is growing a lead-cooled quick reactor (LFR) that it says will recycle spent nuclear gasoline from typical reactors. The first step of its “supply roadmap” would be the design and building of a first-of-a-kind Mini 30-MWe LFR to be deployed in France by 2030, quickly adopted by a 200-MWe business unit within the UK. On the similar time, newcleo has mentioned it’s going to immediately spend money on a blended uranium/plutonium oxide (MOX) plant to gasoline its reactors from present nuclear waste.
The alliance’s choice will “present a lift” to the corporate’s program, which has “already seen because the quickest rising nuclear begin up in Europe whose enterprise now counts over 90 partnerships, and greater than 850 workers primarily based in 19 places throughout France, Italy, the UK, Switzerland, and Slovakia, together with three manufacturing services,” the corporate mentioned.
“This can be a proud second for newcleo and a ringing endorsement for our expertise,” mentioned Stefano Buono, CEO of newcleo. “Whereas the notion of utilizing lead isn’t new, our undertaking will maximize its potential to simplify the design and cost-effectiveness of our system, all whereas enhancing its passive security performance. Lead’s means to help greater temperatures additionally opens the potential to create excessive temperature warmth upon which so many industrial processes rely, with higher reliability and extra sustainably than ever earlier than. As well as, by closing the nuclear gasoline cycle we intention not solely scale back the necessity to mine, transport and course of new uranium however to supply a sustainable answer to the stockpiles of nuclear waste created by Europe’s present fleet of nuclear reactors.”
Nuward (EDF). French firm EDF is spearheading improvement of a 340-MWe PWR expertise that might function two reactors of 170 MWe every utilizing France’s expertise in PWRs. Whereas NUWARD was unveiled in 2019, EDF in March established its improvement underneath a devoted subsidiary. In July, the corporate mentioned it will optimize the SMR’s design to deal with present and confirmed applied sciences. The corporate desires to supply an SMR by the 2030s.
European BWRX-300 SMR (OSGE). Poland’s ORLEN Synthos Inexperienced Vitality (OSGE), in partnership with GE Hitachi, leads the European BWRX-300 SMR initiative, which has garnered help from 17 corporations throughout 11 international locations. The boiling water reactor (BWR) undertaking focuses on deploying GE Hitachi’s BWRX-300 SMR expertise, a simplified and cost-competitive answer designed for electrical energy era and industrial purposes like hydrogen manufacturing and district heating. OSGE plans to construct a fleet of those reactors in Poland, with the primary unit anticipated to be operational by the tip of the last decade. In 2023, Poland’s Ministry of Local weather and Surroundings issued permits for six potential websites, with plans for as much as 24 reactors.
The undertaking’s working group will work to standardize licensing throughout the EU, construct a strong European provide chain, and speed up SMR deployment. “BWRX-300 not solely has the potential to be the primary SMR to be deployed within the EU, however it additionally brings alternatives to be constructed by European corporations, utilizing key elements manufactured in Europe. A devoted undertaking working group gathering almost 20 corporations affirm the sturdy curiosity within the BWRX-300 expertise from European gamers,” mentioned Rafał Kasprów, CEO of OSGE in July.
Rolls-Royce SMR (Rolls-Royce SMR Ltd). UK-based Rolls-Royce SMR is growing a “home-grown” 470-MWe PWR design, which incorporates a “factory-built” plant. In September, the Czech Republic picked the Rolls-Royce SMR as the popular provider for its proposed small modular reactor program, after assessing seven potential suppliers. The Czech authorities, in collaboration with ČEZ, the nation’s nationwide nuclear vitality firm, goals to deploy the primary Rolls-Royce SMR on the Temelín nuclear energy plant by the 2030s. ČEZ can be exploring different places that could be appropriate for SMRs. These embrace the websites in Tušimice and Dětmarovice.
In July, Rolls-Royce SMR gained a spot on Vattenfall’s shortlist of two SMR distributors competing to deploy a possible SMR fleet in Sweden. This choice positions Rolls-Royce as a key participant in Vattenfall’s nuclear growth plans, geared toward assembly Sweden’s rising electrical energy demand and supporting the nation’s objective of reaching a fossil-free financial system by 2045. The undertaking would deal with deploying SMRs on the Ringhals nuclear website, with the earliest operational date anticipated within the first half of the 2030s.
NuScale VOYGR SMR (RoPower Nuclear S.A). U.S.-based NuScale is spearheading a undertaking to deploy its first NuScale 462-MWe VOYGR-6 nuclear energy plant in Romania by 2029.
The undertaking stems from a June 2022 memorandum of understanding between NuScale and Nuclearelectrica, a state-owned proprietor and operator of Romania’s solely two nuclear items—Cernavoda 1 and a couple of. The 650-MW CANDU 6 items, sited in southeast Romania, got here on-line in 1996 and 2007. Bolstered with a January 2021–issued grant from the U.S. Commerce and Growth Company (USTDA) to pin down SMR-suitable websites, Nuclearelectrica recognized Doiceşti Energy Station, a former coal energy plant owned by E-Infra Group as its most popular location for its first NuScale plant. The previous coal plant is situated in central Romania, about three hours away from the Cernavoda nuclear plant.
Throughout an earnings name in August, NuScale CEO John Hopkins highlighted the rising momentum in Europe for the corporate’s expertise. “We’re seeing vital curiosity. And a number of it in Central and Japanese Europe is pushed by vitality safety in addition to local weather disruption. Romania is an efficient working example. The Romanian undertaking, we’ve been working with the Romanian authorities for fairly a while. As I commented, Fluor Corp. would be the prime contractor or the subcontractor for that undertaking, which can usher in our energy modules to the RoPower undertaking.” That undertaking is the “farthest alongside” in Central and Japanese Europe, he famous. “We’re additionally in discussions with different international locations as a result of … they want clear, 24/7 dependable vitality.”
Hopkins expressed optimism for SMRs, citing regulatory cooperation as a vital issue driving the market after key local weather conferences like COP28 and COP29. “So we’re fairly bullish on what we’re seeing out there general,” he mentioned.
Thorizon One (Thorizon). Thorizon, a spin-off from the Dutch Nuclear Analysis Institute (NRG), is advancing the event of a 250 MWth (100 MWe) molten salt reactor referred to as Thorizon One. “Our ambition is to develop a molten salt reactor that may be realized quickly, is ‘walk-away’ secure, and takes a primary step in direction of circularity by using long-lived nuclear waste as gasoline,” the firm explains. Thorizon goals to finalize a non-nuclear molten salt demonstrator quickly and start building on its first reactor by 2030.
The corporate is backed by companions to incorporate Orano, Tractebel, and EDF. As a recipient of the France 2030 funding plan for revolutionary nuclear reactors, it says it’s working to satisfy Europe’s local weather neutrality objectives by 2050. Its Thorizon One reactor is at the moment present process a preparatory assessment by Dutch and French regulators, with plans to adjust to security laws and use licensed supplies to streamline the licensing course of. “Licensing is a essential path on this timeline, making early dialogues with regulators important. To streamline the licensing course of, Thorizon One plans to adjust to present security laws, use licensed supplies and elements, and work with skilled corporations with prior nuclear licenses,” it says.
—Sonal Patel is a POWER senior editor (@sonalcpatel, @POWERmagazine).
