Hyundai Engineering & Construction (Hyundai E&C) has signed a framework agreement with US small modular reactor (SMR) developer First American Nuclear Company (FANCO) to cooperate on the EAGL-1 project. The agreement was signed in New York by Choi Young, Executive Vice President of Hyundai E&C’s New Energy Business Division, and FANCO CEO Mike Reinboth.
Hyundai E&C will participate in the early development phases. This includes designing the balance of plant (BOP) systems comprising components and auxiliary systems of a nuclear plant excluding the reactor itself, such as turbines, generators, cooling systems, and power conversion equipment. It will also conduct constructability reviews and establishing modularisation strategies.
The two companies intend to explore an engineering, procurement, & construction (EPC) partnership for eventual project execution. EPC is the most profitable area in large-scale plant projects and is a core sector where Hyundai E&C can directly apply the construction capabilities it has accumulated from domestic and international nuclear power plant construction.
FANCO has announced plans to create a nuclear energy park in partnership with the state of Indiana and is pursuing the construction of a next-generation nuclear cluster linking nuclear manufacturing facilities and energy complexes. This suggests the potential for future cooperation between the two companies to expand beyond a single project into a large-scale regional business.
EAGL-1 is a fourth-generation, liquid metal-cooled fast reactor designed to use a lead-bismuth coolant. A single reactor is designed to generate 240 MWe. A standard six-reactor modular plant layout can generate enough electricity to supply 1.2m households. The reactor is intended to use recycled used nuclear fuel to minimise long-lived radioactive waste. It also features a Bridge Power system which will enable operators to transition fossil fuel infrastructure from natural gas-fired generation to nuclear energy.
Hyundai E&C said that, with this deal, it has completed a portfolio encompassing all major 4th-generation reactor types, following previous collaborations with Holtec [light water small modular reactor], TerraPower [sodium-cooled fast reactor], and Thorizon [molten salt reactor]. Hyundai E&C is accelerating its push into the US next-generation SMR market.
FANCO’s technology has benefitted from significant Department of Energy (DOE) support. A DOE Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program (ARDP) development grant for the EAGL-1 was awarded in December 2020 to a consortium that included the designers of the technology. These awards typically ($20-30m) were for initial technical and regulatory development and required a 20% private-sector match.
This funding enabled the team to complete the pre-conceptual engineering required for the EAGL-1 reactor and begin the formal engagement process with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). Subsequently a formal review was conducted by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) under a DOE GAIN (Gateway for Accelerated Innovation in Nuclear) programme voucher. This provided FANCO with direct access to the specialised expertise and technical facilities at PNNL to evaluate the licensability of the EAGL-1 reactor design.
The review concluded that the EAGL-1 design is licensable under existing NRC criteria without the need for new rules or novel regulatory frameworks, provided further design development and analysis are completed. Additionally, FANCO is building a lead-bismuth test loop that will provide NRC with unequivocal, real-world performance data, rather than relying solely on models and historical analysis. The loop will be used to validate proprietary thermal-hydraulic calculation codes, proving that the real-world flow and heat transfer of the lead-bismuth alloy match FANCO’s digital predictions.
FANCO is also collaborating with Purdue University for testing support and technical facilities under a November 2025 memorandum of understanding. Purdue provides the analytical support needed to validate FANCO’s proprietary safety codes, utilising their PUR-1 reactor.
In May, FANCO and Canadian engineering firm AtkinsRéalis formed a strategic alliance to establish a scalable framework for deploying FANCO’s EAGL-1 SMR and associated fuel facilities, with AtkinsRéalis providing engineering services. FANCO had previously engaged AtkinsRéalis as primary architect-engineer for the Indiana energy park.
According to the FANCO website, the company’s team “supported some of the most advanced reactor projects in US history and abroad, from liquid-metal fast reactors to next-generation fuel cycle systems”. The team’s track record “spans the Fast Flux Test Facility (FFTF), the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership, the Advanced Reactor Concepts programme, and early studies for the Versatile Test Reactor (VTR)”. FANCO claims: “With EAGL-1, we’re translating that experience into a commercially ready solution.”
However, the world’s only operating lead-bismuth-cooled fast reactors were developed in the 1960s by the Soviet Union. These reactors powered the Alfa-class submarines, which were operational from the 1960s until the 1990s. Use of the reactors was discontinued because of issues such as lead bismuth solidification, corrosion, and the generation of polonium-210.
US experience with fast reactors was discontinued in the mid-1990s. The EBR-II (Experimental Breeder Reactor-II) was a sodium-cooled fast reactor that operated from 1964 to 1994 at Argonne National Laboratory. The FFTF, which operated from 1982 to 1992 was also cooled using liquid sodium. The VTR was a planned DOE project to build a high-flux, fast-neutron test reactor but the project’s funding was cancelled.
Development of a lead-bismuth-cooled fast reactor will require special metals and materials to overcome the problems encountered by the Alpha submarines. Moreover, bismuth is not widely available. Global production is dominated by a few countries, primarily China, which refines most of the world’s bismuth. Other countries have largely ceased their own refining operations.
