The Babcock & Wilcox Company (B&W) is looking for equity partners to take a majority stake in its mPower small modular reactor (SMR) programme. B&W said it plans to retain the rights to manufacture the reactor module and nuclear fuel.
Financial advisor, JP Morgan will "assist in the process of securing additional investment partner(s) who will collectively own the majority equity interest in Generation mPower LLC," B&W said, 13 November.
Generation mPower (GmP) is the joint development company formed by B&W and Bechtel in 2010 to develop and licence the 180 MW mPower reactor. It aims to deploy its lead plant by 2022. To date, B&W has invested more than $360 million in the mPower programme.
In partnership with the Tennessee Valley Authority and Bechtel International, B&W won the US Department of Energy's first funding award for developing and deploying small reactor technology. A second competition is now under way.
"B&W, through the world-class team that we have assembled, has elevated the mPower programme to a leadership position in the development of SMRs to meet domestic and global market demand," said B&W president and CEO, E. James Ferland.
Ferland described accelerating the search for equity partners as the "next logical step" to ensure that GmP has "adequate resources" to fully capture opportunities over the next several years.
"Having a broader set of industrial partners and owners of GmP is important to ensure that we make a seamless transition into mPower licensing and construction," said Christofer Mowry, President and CEO of Generation mPower.
Mowry said GmP would begin the formal design certification process with the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission "over the next year".
Photo: The mPower reactor
