Romania Studies The Deployment Of Europe’s First SMR By 2028

Romania’s state nuclear power corporation Nuclearelectrica announced a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed with  NuScale Power LLC to conduct engineering studies, technical reviews, and licensing and permitting activities at a site in Doicesti (Romania) that is the preferred location for the deployment of the first NuScale VOYGR™ power plant.

The MoU has been announced during an event on energy cooperation, hosted by Romania and co-organised with the United States Trade and Development Agency (“USTDA”).

The announcement is considered to be a key advancement of NuScale and Nuclearelectrica’s teaming agreement signed last year, under which NuScale and Nuclearelectrica are taking steps toward deploying a first NuScale VOYGR™-6 (6-module) 462 MW power plant in Romania.

Romania has the potential to accommodate the first deployment of SMRs in Europe and become a catalyst for SMRs in the region, as well as a base for supporting operatorship of this new technology in other countries.

NuScale says in its Press Release.

USTDA awarded a grant to Nuclearelectrica in early 2021, for the conduct of a study to identify and assess several sites across Romania, including locations where existing coal-fired power plants could be replaced with SMR plants.

Nuclearelectrica has so determined the above-mentioned Doicesti site to be the preferred location for the first SMR deployment.

Read the full NuScale Press Release.

NuScale Power also announced its plans to open the fourth NuScale Energy Exploration Center (“E2 Center”) in collaboration with the U.S. and the Romanian governments.

The NuScale small modular reactor (“SMR”) simulator will be installed at the University Politehnica of Bucharest to support the workforce capacity building of Romania’s next generation of nuclear experts, technologists and operators.

As the first E2 Center overseas, this collaboration highlights the rapidly growing global support for NuScale as the premier clean energy solution.

The E2 Center is an innovative learning environment that offers users a hands-on opportunity to apply nuclear science and engineering principles through simulated, real-world nuclear power plant operation scenarios. The E2 Center employs state-of-the-art computer modeling within a simulator of the NuScale SMR power plant control room.

The installation of the E2 Center and training for the instructors who will use the center will be targeted for completion by late 2023.

Read the full Nuscale Press Release.