U.S. to provide $14 million for Romanian SMR study

Included among the partnership’s projects announced on June 26 is a $14 million U.S. commitment toward a front-end engineering and design (FEED) study to provide site-specific data necessary for the deployment of a small modular reactor plant in Romania, including cost, construction, schedule, and licensing details.

This project, according to State, is the next step in a plan that first came to light on the sidelines of the COP26 Conference in Glasgow last November, when John Kerry, the Biden administration’s special presidential envoy for climate, and Romanian president Klaus Iohannis proposed the deployment of an SMR facility in the Eastern European nation using NuScale Power technology.

The study is expected to take eight months and cost a total of $28 million, with contributions from NuScale and the state-owned Romanian utility Nuclearelectrica. Technical assistance is to be provided by the U.S. Trade and Development Agency and the Commerce Department.

Study partners: “Our partners in Romania and across Eastern Europe require the scaling of existing project preparation efforts to meet the region’s longer-term energy security needs,” said Enoh T. Ebong, USTDA director. “This FEED study would build upon USTDA’s existing commitments to deploy cutting-edge U.S. SMR solutions to the region, including grant funding for a study that helped Romania identify and assess several locations where existing coal-fired power plants could be replaced with SMR plants. Our engagement is having the intended result of creating new business opportunities for U.S. industry in an important market and advancing energy security across the region.”

John Hopkins, NuScale’s president and chief executive officer, said, “When future generations look back at this time, they will see that we came together to ensure that we are accelerating technology that can fight climate change and provide energy security. NuScale’s partnership with Romania’s Nuclearelectrica to deploy our VOYGR-6 SMR power plant will create jobs and energy independence while ensuring a better tomorrow, and we thank the U.S. government for its crucial support for this project.”