US-based NuScale Power has reported a higher net loss for the first quarter of 2022 compared with the first quarter of 2021, but officials insist there is sufficient finance to continue until 2024. On 3 June, NuScale provided a business update and reaffirmed its financial outlook. “At NuScale Power, we’ve built a strong competitive position, won customer mandates and firmly established ourselves as a first mover in the large, global and largely untapped SMR market,” said President and CEO John Hopkins.
In its business update, it highlighted the following achievements:
- Grew customer pipeline to four active relationships globally including its anchor relationship with Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems (UAMPS) and newer agreements with Dairyland Power Cooperative in the USA, SN Nuclearelectrica in Romania and KGHM in Poland.
- Made substantial progress with UAMPS towards deployment in 2029. The Company recently completed its field investigation activities at the project site located within the Idaho National Laboratory near Idaho Falls, Idaho. In parallel, NuScale Power continued to develop a Combined Licence Application (COLA) to address key safety and environmental considerations and provide additional project-specific facility design information to support the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC’s) safety and environmental reviews, as well as public consultations.
- Formed new strategic partnerships with steel manufacturer Nucor in the USA and with the Japan Bank for International Cooperation in Japan, as well as strengthened a partnership with Doosan Enerbility in Korea.
- Made significant progress on commercialisation including technology and production process development. NuScale is ordering long lead-time equipment, which it believes is a significant competitive advantage. NuScale Power is simultaneously working with its commercial and supply partners on various testing and validation campaigns.
- Reached additional licensing milestones with the NRC in addition to its COLA associated with the UAMPS project. This includes the recent approval of the Building Design & Analysis Licensing Topical Report and the acceptance of three other topical reports for review, including the Rod Ejection Accident Methodology Licensing Topical Report Revision, the Framatome Fuel Applicability Topical report supplement and the Critical Heat Flux Topical report supplement.
In its financial update, NuScake said total available capital remains strong at $383.7 million. This includes $42.7 million in cash or cash equivalents as of 31 March and $341 million from the assets in trust and upsized PIPE, net of transaction expenses, raised in connection with the recently closed combination with Spring Valley Acquisition Corp.
NuScale reaffirmed its financial outlook including $16 million cash revenue for full year 2022 “as first shared in its merger announcement with Spring Valley”.It said there is sufficient capital to support longer-term business development plans, thanks in part to a $54 million increase in PIPE proceeds from $181 million to $235 million. Actual merger proceeds of $341 million exceeded the $200 million cash need forecasted to 2024 in the projections shared in its merger announcement with Spring Valley
“We are pleased to be off to a great start as the first publicly traded SMR technology provider,” said Chris Colbert, Chief Financial Officer of NuScale Power. “In reaffirming our financial outlook, we believe the capital generated through our successful merger can be successfully deployed to support our near-term business development initiatives while driving our long-term growth plan.”
