Advisory board established for French SMR development

NUWARD is envisioned as a 340-MWe European Pressurized Water SMR plant consisting of two 170-MWe reactors “designed to address the world energy mix decarbonization challenge with a complementary solution to large-size reactors and renewables,” EDF said in its announcement. Other entities involved in the project include the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), the Naval Group, TechnicAtome, and Framatome.

The board: The INAB is to meet regularly throughout the different phases of NUWARD’s development, advising on matters such as market expectations, potential applications and associated business models, plant economics, technical features, licensing and regulatory approaches, and public acceptance.

For the makeup of the board, EDF drew from international industry, as well as from academic and research and development bodies:

■ Industry: EDF UK (United Kingdom), Fortum (Finland), Ontario Power Generation (Canada), Teollisuuden Voima Oyj (Finland), and ÚJV Řež, a ČEZ Group company (Czech Republic).

■ Academic and R&D bodies: Bhabha Atomic Research Center (India), the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (United States), and Politecnico di Milano (Italy).

The official words: “With NUWARD, EDF confirms its willingness to bring to the market a robust technology, complementary to the group’s solutions as part of its nuclear reactor portfolio, to address the global challenge of energy transition in the next decade,” said Jean-Bernard Lévy, EDF chairman and chief executive officer. “The setting up of [the INAB] is an innovative way for EDF to support the successful development of our SMR technology, taking into account market expectations and potential customers’ requirements and relying on the highly valuable recommendations of leading experts in the SMR field.”