Company hopes to have first reactor in operation in 2029
US reactor developer NuScale Power and Doosan Enerbility have signed an agreement for Doosan to begin production of forging materials for NuScale’s small modular reactors as early as 2022, with expectations for full-scale equipment manufacturing by the latter half of 2023.
Doosan, a South Korean industrials and energy company, will begin production of forging dies for NuScale’s upper reactor pressure vessel.
NuScale, which is finalising plans to go public, is working for Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems (Uamps) to bring what could be the world’s first SMR project to commercialisation.
Uamps is scheduled to submit a construction licence application in 2023, and is aiming to start commercial operation of the first module in 2029.
In December 2021, NuScale announced the rebranding of its SMR portfolio and introduced the official Voygr name for its stable of plants. The flagship project will be the Voygr-12 scalable power plant design, which can accommodate up to 12 power modules, resulting in a total gross output of 924 MW.
NuScale also offers smaller scalable power plant solutions – the four-module Voygr-4 (308 MW) and six-module Voygr-6 (462 MW).
NuScale’s factory-fabricated SMRs use a smaller version of larger, pressurised water reactor technology. The scalable designs mean plants can be adapted to the power needs of their location. This reduces the financial commitments associated with gigawatt-sized nuclear facilities, the company said.
In August 2020, the NuScale SMR became the first and so far only SMR to receive design approval from the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, In July 2021, the NRC published the proposed rule that would certify the NuScale design – a crucial step towards the construction and deployment of the SMR technology.
NuScale is also looking into options for reactors deployment overseas, including in Poland, where it recently signed an agreement with KGHM, a Poland-based leader in copper and silver production and large industrial energy user.
