Nuclearelectrica salutes the 14 million USD grant announced by President Biden for the development of small modular reactors (SMRs) in Romania

Nuclearelectrica salutes the announcement made by President Biden with the occasion of the launch of the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment, presented at G7 Leaders’ Summit: the allocation of a grant of $14 million for the next stage of the development of small modular reactors in Romania by NuScale – The Preliminary Front-End Engineering and Design study for the SMR project in Romania.

For the development of this study, Nuclearelectrica and NuScale will cooperate with the U.S. Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) in order to initiate a series of engineering and design activities and studies, as well further technical analyses of the potential site of Doicesti, which will provide Romania with essential data for the development of the first small modular reactor power plant in Romania. This information is essential to estimate costs, rigorously plan activities and define the project based on the national and international authorization and regulation applicable requirements. Also, potential suppliers of services and manufacturing and assembling in Romania will be identified during this stage. 

“NuScale’s small modular reactor technology, the first and only SMR technology to receive the approval of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) can support Romania’s decarbonization objectives, simultaneously supporting energy independence and our country’s prosperity. Through the partnership with the United States, by choosing a technology that is already approved and validated by a regulatory agency with long term expertise, Romania also makes sure that its projects in the field of nuclear energy respects the highest standards of nuclear safety. Moreover, with over 25 years of experience in operating at the highest standards two nuclear units, Nuclearelectrica is proud to contribute with its expertise to the development of the first small modular reactors in Europe and to be an example to other countries interested in developing their civil nuclear programs,” said Cosmin Ghiţă, CEO of Nuclearelectrica.

Therefore, through Nuclearelectrica, Romania takes the first steps in implementing, during this decade, the first 6-module 462 Mwe installed capacity NuScale power plant in Europe. It is estimated that the NuScale energy plant will generate 193 permanent jobs, 1.500 jobs in construction, 2.300 jobs in production and will help Romania to avoid the generation of 4 million tons of CO2 per year.

“Like in the case of the Cernavoda Nuclear, the first small modular reactors power plant will generate in the area where it will be build clean energy and strong economic growth for the local community by creating thousands of jobs, investments in infrastructure, growth of the chain of local suppliers, tax funds to the local budget and it will contribute to forming a new generation of specialists through investment in high-quality education,” said Cosmin Ghiţă, CEO of Nuclearelectrica.