Industry Update—August 2025

An alliance called the Eagles Consortium has been established by four European nuclear technology organizations with the goal of developing and commercializing the EAGLES-300 lead-cooled small modular reactor. The organizations are Italy-based Ansaldo Nucleare, ENEA (the Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy, and Sustainable Economic Development), Romania’s RATEN (Technologies for Nuclear Energy State-Owned Company), and Belgium’s SCK-CEN. The Eagles Consortium is designed to strengthen industrial and technological expertise from Belgium, Italy, and Romania, including expertise in liquid metals, and to accelerate the deployment of Gen IV nuclear technology in Europe.

The Franco-Dutch next-generation nuclear technology developer Thorizon has formed a research collaboration with the French company Curium and the National Institute of Applied Sciences of Lyon (INSA Lyon) to support development of Thorizon One, a Gen IV molten salt reactor. The Thorizon One project is part of the European Commission’s Industrial Alliance for Small Modular Reactors and the French government’s France 2030 investment plan. The new partnership primarily seeks to develop corrosion tests for metals that are in contact with molten salt.

Nextchem, a subsidiary of Rome-based Maire S.p.A., and Paris-based advanced reactor developer Newcleo have created the NextCleo joint venture. Its purpose is to develop the conventional island and balance of plant for a nuclear power plant based on Newcleo’s 200-MW modular lead fast reactor, known as the LFR-AS-200. Newcleo is developing the reactor, while Nextchem is to deliver the extended basic design, procure the critical proprietary equipment for the conventional island and balance of plant, and provide project management and integration services. Newcleo is also investing in a mixed oxide (MOX) plant to provide fuel for its reactors.

Newcleo also has established a joint venture company with Slovak state-owned radioactive waste management company JAVYS that is focused on the potential construction of as many as four LFR-AS-200 reactors at the site of Slovakia’s decommissioned Bohunice nuclear power plant. The new company, known as the Centre for Development of Spent Nuclear Fuel Utilization, is to develop a project to build lead-cooled fast reactors that have a total output of as much as 800 MWe and that are powered by MOX fuel, which is to be fabricated from existing used nuclear fuel extracted from Slovakia’s reactor fleet. The fuel will be reprocessed in France, and new fuel rods will be assembled at Newcleo’s planned MOX facility.

Industrias Nucleares do Brasil has signed a $9.1 million contract with Brazil’s Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovation and its Financing Agency for Studies and Projects for the development and testing of technologies applicable to Brazil’s planned 3- to 5-MW microreactor. Additional parties to the agreement include research centers, universities, the Brazilian Navy, the Institute of Energy and Nuclear Research, and the Institute of Nuclear Engineering. INB is responsible for providing nuclear fuel, engineering services, and technical and administrative support. In the microreactor project, the National Nuclear Energy Commission plans to demonstrate the feasibility of developing a unit that can fit inside a 40-foot container and be operated remotely for more than 10 years without refueling.

Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand to cooperate on potential small modular reactor projects. The companies plan to exchange SMR-related technical information, conduct a joint review of options for introducing SMRs in Thailand, and cooperate on training nuclear personnel via on-site tours and exchanges of staff and technology.

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENTS

DOE advances gaseous diffusion plants’ contract

The Department of Energy has provided Mission Conversion Services Alliance—a joint venture of AtkinsRéalis, Westinghouse Government Services, and Amentum—with the notice to proceed on the Operations & Site Mission Support Contract for the DOE’s Portsmouth, Ohio, and Paducah, Ky., gaseous diffusion plants. Swift & Staley and Akima Centerra Integrated Services are also business teaming partners for this work. The MCSA contract is valued at $2.3 billion and covers a period of as long as 10 years.

Alabama-based contractor Radiance Technologies announced that it has acquired Verus Research, a New Mexico–based firm specializing in advanced engineering research and development. Radiance Technologies is an employee-owned business with contracts for the Department of Defense and the intelligence community. With the acquisition, Verus Research becomes a wholly owned subsidiary of Radiance, though it plans to maintain its operations in New Mexico.

Chart Industries and Flow­serve Corporation have entered into a definitive agreement to combine their companies in an all-stock merger. Texas-based Flowserve Corporation is a provider of engineered and industrial pumps, seals, and valves, as well as related flow management services. Georgia-based Chart Industries is a provider of technology, equipment, and services related to liquefied natural gas, hydrogen, biogas, and carbon dioxide capture, among other applications. The combined company will have an estimated value of about $19 billion and an installed base of more than 5.5 million assets in more than 50 countries.

NRD LLS, an advanced nuclear materials producer headquartered in New York state, has entered a strategic partnership with France-based nuclear fuel cycle company Orano focused on boosting production of americium-241. The partnership plans to ensure that Am-241 industrial production can scale up to meet long-term market needs and growth, with both companies increasing investment in their facilities, research and development, logistics, and process improvements. Orano’s La Hague facility in Normandy, France, will be relied on to extract Am-241 from used nuclear fuel processed on-site.

The Texas Nuclear Alliance, which is dedicated to the advancement of nuclear technology in Texas, has added Certrec and Enercon as founding members.

Certrec, headquartered in Fort Worth, provides regulatory compliance and digital integration solutions for the energy industry. Enercon, with offices in Fort Worth and Dallas, provides engineering and environmental services to clients involved in nuclear power generation and related markets, renewable and conventional power generation, distributed generation, and data centers.

CONTRACTS

Curio and USA move toward supplier-partner agreements

Curio, a nuclear recycling technology company headquartered in Washington, D.C., has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Utilities Service Alliance, a nonprofit cooperative that facilitates collaboration among utilities that own or operate nuclear power plants. The MOU provides for collaboration and the potential for future supplier-partner agreements between Curio and USA utility members. As nuclear fuel recycling products and services become available, the parties intend to enter good-faith negotiations to establish a written supplier-partner agreement signed by both Curio and USA for products and services including discounted uranium feedstocks and waste minimization services.

AtkinsRéalis has signed a collaboration agreement with Électricité de France that expands the strategic partnership between the Canadian and French nuclear energy industries. The document covers pre-technology and post-technology vendor selection processes, including engineering support, provision of nonreactor equipment, sharing of best practices, and installation and commissioning services. The agreement also includes potential collaboration in waste management and fuel production. AtkinsRéalis and EDF have been collaborating on nuclear new build projects in the United Kingdom and France.

In addition, EDF and Finnish utility Fortum have signed an early work agreement to advance their collaboration on the potential development of new nuclear projects in Finland and Sweden. These potential projects are to be focused on EDF’s EPR Gen III+ pressurized water reactors. In March, Fortum selected two large reactor vendors (EDF and Westinghouse-Hyundai) and one small modular reactor vendor (GE Hitachi) with which to deepen its collaboration on nuclear projects.

SKB, the company that manages the radioactive waste from Sweden’s nuclear power plants, has selected the Swiss construction firm Implenia to build the first underground section of a spent fuel repository located in Söderviken, near the Forsmark nuclear power plant. Ground was broken for this facility in January. The underground section of the repository, positioned at a depth of about 500 meters, will be able to store approximately 12,000 metric tons of spent nuclear fuel. Implenia will first establish the outbuildings, workshops, and other necessary infrastructure before the rock excavation work begins. The rest of the project will involve the planning, design, and construction of an access tunnel to the first storage level, three vertical shafts for ventilation and an elevator, a central area, and the main and transport tunnels. The project is expected to be completed by 2033.

The Norwegian Nuclear Decommissioning Agency has awarded a contract to Virginia-based Amentum and Multiconsult Norge (Amentum’s Norwegian partner) to provide an analysis of technology options for assisting NND in developing a comprehensive knowledge base on nuclear power as a potential energy source in the Norwegian power system. The analysis will include an overview of reactor technologies and power plant designs, including small modular reactors and other advanced modular designs.

ONDRAF/NIRAS, the agency that manages all radioactive waste in Belgium, has selected NucleusSafe to perform civil engineering work for the planned surface disposal facility in Dessel. NucleusSafe is a joint venture among the Belgian contractors Deckx, BESIX, Vanhout, and Stadsbader. ONDRAF/NIRAS has also chosen the Belgian construction firm Denys to handle the electromechanical aspects of construction for the aboveground disposal facility, which is to store all low- and intermediate-level, short-lived radioactive waste from Belgium’s nuclear power plants, hospitals, research institutes, and nuclear decommissioning.

Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power and the Czech Republic’s CˇEZ Group have finalized a contract to proceed with new nuclear capacity at the site of the Dukovany nuclear power plant. According to the Czech government, Czech companies will handle about 60 percent of the construction, and agreements have been signed so far for about 30 percent of this work.

Kazakhstan’s Atomic Energy Agency has signed agreements with Rosatom and the China National Nuclear Corporation under which the Russian and Chinese companies will lead separate consortiums to build nuclear power plants in Kazakhstan. Rosatom is to build the first plant, near the town of Ulken, with Gen III+ VVER-1200 reactors. CNNC is to develop the second plant, though no details were provided for this project.