Rome already drafting legislation for possible return to nuclear power
Italian engineering group Maire and European advanced reactor developer Newcleo have signed an agreement to set up a joint venture aimed at building power plants based on the Newcleo’s technology for advanced modular reactors, the two companies said.
Newcleo will partner with Maire’s unit Nextchem to accelerate the development and the commercialisation of its lead-cooled fast reactor powered by reprocessed nuclear waste.
Under the agreement, Newcleo is due to take a 40% stake in the joint venture. Nextchem will be granted newly issued shares up to 5% of Newcleo's share capital, subject to the achievement of certain milestones, including the announcement of a final investment decision.
According to Newcleo’s plan, the first operational reactor in France is expected as of end 2031, while the final investment decision for the first commercial power plant is expected around 2029.
The Italian government is planning to draft legislation by early 2025 to allow the use of new nuclear power technologies, the energy minister said last week, signalling a potential reversal of the country’s existing ban on nuclear power generation.
Newcleo recently moved headquarters from London to Paris. It has more than 950 employees based in 19 locations across France, Italy, the UK, Switzerland and Slovakia, including three manufacturing facilities.
Newcleo said it has raised a total of over €537m ($565m) from institutional and individual investors and has seen an increasing number of European players joining its growing funding base – or over 700 shareholders to date.
Newcleo was founded in 2021 by Stefano Buono, an Italian physicist and alumnus of the European Organisation for Nuclear Research.
Newcleo is developing lead-cooled fast rector (LFR) technology which it says will be suitable for a wide range of locations including providing power for industry.
The plant will run on reprocessed spent fuel created by existing reactors, reducing the climate footprint and effectively closing the fuel cycle, increasing the useable energy from previously mined uranium, and eliminating the need to extract and process new uranium resources and so reducing the stock of long-lived waste.
Lead-cooled nuclear plants are not yet operating, but are being developed as next-generation, or Generation IV, reactors.
Lead has a very high boiling temperature of 1,749°C which means the problem of coolant boiling is for all practical purposes eliminated. This brings with it important safety advantages that also result in design simplification and improved economic performance.
