The race to develop and manufacture small modular reactors is a competitive one, with at least 72 concepts at various stages of development in countries including Argentina, Canada, the US, the UK, Russia, China, Japan and South Korea.
France joined the race in 2019, when the country’s CEA nuclear agency, state utility EDF, reactor design and maintenance company TechnicAtome and the Naval Group announced plans to develop together an SMR that could be on the market by the end of the next decade.
The tactic is clear. France wants to market NUWARD to expand the too limited supply of the French nuclear sector, which has depended largely on sales of its EPR, a large, 1,600-MW pressurised water reactor that has been sold to China, the UK, Finland and domestically is also under construction at Flamanville.
France joined the race in 2019, when the country’s CEA nuclear agency, state utility EDF, reactor design and maintenance company TechnicAtome and the Naval Group announced plans to develop together an SMR that could be on the market by the end of the next decade.
The tactic is clear. France wants to market NUWARD to expand the too limited supply of the French nuclear sector, which has depended largely on sales of its EPR, a large, 1,600-MW pressurised water reactor that has been sold to China, the UK, Finland and domestically is also under construction at Flamanville.
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