A French startup developing a Generation IV nuclear microreactor that can range in size from as small as one megawatt to 40 MW has signed an agreement with engineering group Assystem to build the ultra-compact plant.

Assystem will provide project management, permitting, integration and engineering services for Naarea’s XSMR, (eXtra Small Modular Reactor), which will potentially be powered by material recycled from spent nuclear fuel, or from thorium, could be produced by 2030.

Assystem will develop a digital twin of the XSMR to model and simulate its behaviour. The twin will provide critical information for validating the design and will lead to the construction of a physical prototype.

Naarea, founded in November by entrepreneurs Jean-Luc Alexandre and Ivan Gavriloff, said the agreement with Assystem is the concrete realisation of a collaboration that has been underway for several months.