French small modular reactor (SMR) start-up Calogena has secured a €40m ($45m) grant from the European Commission’s Innovation Fund to back the potential construction of its first commercial nuclear facility. This is the first time EU funding awarded to an SMR that will directly support building a commercial plant rather than research and development.
The reactor is planned for Pierrelatte in southern France (on the Tricastin nuclear site in the Drôme region) to serve the town’s local energy needs. Calogena, a subsidiary of Group Gorgé, is developing the CAL30, a 30 MWe water-cooled, low-temperature, low-pressure pool-type reactor purpose-built strictly to supply heat directly to urban district heating networks. Calogena is targeting deployment as early as 2030.
Because the CAL30 has an exceptionally small physical footprint (requiring less than 3,000 m² of land) and operates at low pressures, it is designed to be safely located right next to the communities and district networks it serves.
The EU grant adds to the more than €50m Calogena previously secured through the France 2030 programme, clearing a major hurdle for the company to scale its technology from a conceptual design into a verified commercial reference for cities across Europe.
The Pierrelatte project could become Calogena’s first commercial reference and pave the way for deployment in other European towns and cities. The European district heating market could reach around 1,000 TWh by 2050.
The company is already involved in several projects outside France including the possible supply of more than 15 reactors in Finland. In June, Calogena also signed a cooperation agreement with Veolia, a European leader in district heating, to explore the potential of its SMRs to decarbonise district heating networks in Central and Eastern Europe.
“This funding marks a major milestone for Calogena, said Julien Dereux, Calogena Executive Chairman. “Having developed our technology and brought it to industrial scale, we are now entering the construction phase of our first commercial reactor. The European Commission’s support confirms the maturity of our project and its potential to address one of Europe’s major energy challenges: producing local, low-carbon, cost-competitive heat at scale while
strengthening energy sovereignty. Pierrelatte would be our first commercial reference and should pave the way for wider deployment across Europe.”
