U.S. Bank Commits $98 Million Toward NuScale SMR Project in Romania
A U.S. bank that supports technology exports to international groups is committing $98 million toward development of a small modular reactor (SMR) project in Romania.
The board of directors of EXIM, the U.S. export-import bank, on October 2 announced approval of a final commitment for a loan for pre-project services for the SMR, which would use NuScale technology. Officials said the project, which would have 462 MW of installed generation capacity, would use six modules, each with 77 MW of capacity.
The installation would be located at the site of a former coal-fired power plant in Doicesti, about 56 miles northwest of the capital Bucharest. The loan commitment comes after U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm and other U.S. and Romanian officials in July of this year announced that Fluor Corp. and Romania’s RoPower Nuclear had signed an agreement for the second phase of the front-end engineering and design (FEED) study for the project. The first phase of the FEED study was completed in late 2023. RoPower is jointly owned by state-owner nuclear power group Nuclearelectrica and Nova Power & Gas.
Officials have said the groups are working toward a commercial deployment of the SMR in 2029.
The U.S. and Romania began working toward the project in March 2019, when Nuclearelectrica and NuScale signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to study an SMR installation. NuScale and Nuclearelectrica in 2021 signed an agreement to begin operating a NuScale VOYGR-6 power plant in Romania by 2030. The two companies in June 2022 signed an MOU to start engineering studies, technical reviews, and licensing and permitting activities for the project.
Romanian officials have said repurposing the former coal plant site with nuclear power is part of the country’s “new vision of generation sources for the national energy system of the future.”
Several countries—including the U.S., Japan, United Arab Emirates, and South Korea—and companies (including Samsung C&T Corp. and Sargent & Lundy) are working to develop SMR installations in Romania.
—Darrell Proctor is a senior editor for POWER (@POWERmagazine).