US-based GE Vernova Hitachi Nuclear Energy (GVH) and South Korea’s Samsung C&T have announced a strategic alliance to advance the deployment of the BWRX-300 small modular reactor (SMR) in strategic global markets, outside North America. The companies will focus on developing the supply chain and project delivery solutions for GVH’s and will work together on the potential deployment of five BWRX-300s in Sweden.
“With the first unit of our BWRX-300 under construction in Canada, we are well positioned to lead the deployment and scale of the SMR industry,” said GE Vernova’s CEO Power Maví Zingoni. “This collaboration with a leading player like Samsung C&T, which has a solid track-record of helping to deliver nuclear projects safely, on-time and on-budget, will further strengthen the BWRX-300 position among the most advanced, deployment ready, and lowest risk SMR technology available today.”
Samsung C&T CEO Se-chul Oh said the agreement marks a strategic collaboration where Samsung C&T and GVH aim to become global leaders in the nuclear power segment. “The collaboration will capitalise on Samsung C&T’s extensive experience in nuclear power and infrastructure project execution, combined with GVH’s validated technological expertise.”
The first BWRX-300 is under construction at Ontario Power Generation’s Darlington site in Canada, with completion expected by the end of the decade. Key components like the reactor pressure vessel are being manufactured, and site construction is progressing according to plan.
The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission has accepted and is reviewing Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA) application to construct the first BWRX-300 in the US at the Clinch River site in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Orlen Synthos Green Energy (OSGE) has selected Włocławek as the site for Poland’s first SMR. In Sweden, Vattenfall has shortlisted the BWRX-300 for the possible construction of new reactors adjacent to its Ringhals plant site on the Värö Peninsula. In April, Samsung C&T’s Engineering & Construction Group signed a teaming agreement with Estonia’s Fermi Energia to collaborate on the deployment of two BWRX-300 small modular reactors in Estonia.
The 300 MWe BWRX-300 is a 10th generation water-cooled, natural circulation SMR with passive safety systems that leverages the design and licensing basis of GE Vernova Hitachi Nuclear Energy’s 1,500 MWe ESBWR boiling water reactor and its experience with cross-border regulatory collaboration.
