US-based NuScale Power announced on 5 April that it had finalised an investment and strategic partnership agreement with JGC Holdings Corporation (JGC HD), a holding company of the world's leading EPC contractor group companies headquartered in Japan. As part of a commercial relationship with Fluor Corporation – NuScale’s majority investor and EPC partner in the USA – JGC HD will provide a $40 million cash investment in NuScale Power and partner with Fluor on the deployment of NuScale Power Plants.
The announcement signals the first commercial relationship and investment in NuScale Power from a Japanese-based company and is indicative of growing Japanese and global interest in NuScale’s small modular reactor (SMR) technology. NuScale said.
“JGC HD’s investment and partnership with NuScale Power is a welcome endorsement of our SMR technology and its international viability,” said NuScale Chairman and CEO John Hopkins. “NuScale looks forward to demonstrating how our cleaner and safer advanced nuclear technology can bring numerous benefits – economic and environmental – to countries around the world as they seek innovative solutions to complete a clean energy transition.”
“The JGC Group embraces the goal of ‘Carbon Neutral in 2050’ as committed by the Japanese government last year,” said Tadashi Ishizuka, Representative Director, President and COO of JGC Holdings Corporation. “Our investment in NuScale technology, with its enhanced safety features, will enable JGC to expand our EPC business and deliver a zero carbon resource to the growing demand of global energy market.”
NuScale’s SMR in August 2020 became the first SMR design to receive approval from the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission. NuScale and Fluor are currently working for Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems (UAMPS) to commercialise the plant.
NuScale has developed a new modular light water reactor nuclear power plant to supply energy for electrical generation, district heating, desalination, and other process heat applications. It features a fully factory-fabricated NuScale Power Module capable of generating 77MW of electricity using pressurised water reactor technology. NuScale's scalable design—a power plant can house up to four, six, or 12 individual power modules reduces the financial commitments associated with gigawatt-sized nuclear facilities.
NuScale Power and UAMPS in January executed agreements to facilitate the development of the Carbon Free Power Project (CFPP), which will deploy NuScale Power Modules™ at the Idaho National Laboratory. NuScale and UAMPS expect that the initial orders will address the final step in the regulatory process to proceed with plans to build a NuScale Power Plant as they plan for and develop the Combined Licence Application (COLA) for the CFPP. The UAMPS COLA is expected to be submitted to NRC in 2023aiming for approval in 2025, with nuclear construction of the project beginning shortly thereafter.