NuScale Power

NuScale was founded based on research funded by the US Department of Energy and conducted by Oregon State University, the Idaho National Laboratory, and other colleges[2][3][4] beginning in 2000. At the time, Oregon State's nuclear department had been developing passive water-circulation techniques for cooling in nuclear plants.[5] The research grant ended in 2003, but a group of scientists at Oregon State University continued the work. They built a test lab at one-third the actual scale of the technology and inherited related patents from the university in 2007,[5][6] in exchange for a small equity in the company.[7] NuScale was founded that same year. Its first funding round was in January 2008 for an undisclosed sum.[4] It began seeking certification with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in February 2008.[5]

By 2011, NuScale had raised $35 million in financing and had 100 employees in three cities: Tigard, Oregon; Richland, Washington; and Corvallis, Oregon.[8] NuScale was the first to submit plans for small reactors to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission[4] and is the first to have gained approval.[9][10] It was also being evaluated by a consortium of utility companies called Energy Northwest.[11]

In January 2011, NuScale's largest investor, Kenwood Group, was investigated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and later pleaded guilty to operating a Ponzi scheme. The SEC investigation was not related to any of Kenwood's dealings with NuScale, but Kenwood's assets were frozen just as NuScale was expecting additional funding. The company started making staffing and pay cuts as executives looked for new funding sources[12][13] and most of the company's employees were laid off within a few months.[14]

That September, NuScale obtained a loan to re-hire 60 employees.[15] In October, Fluor Corporation acquired a majority interest in the company for $3.5 million and promised almost $30 million in working capital.[7] According to The Energy Daily, Fluor's investment saved the company, which had been "financially marooned" by its prior investor.[16] A separate agreement also gave Fluor the rights to construct NuScale-based power plants.[17]

In August 2012, Rolls-Royce Holdings said it would support NuScale's commercialization efforts and help it obtain funding from the Department of Energy's Funding Opportunity Announcement, which is intended to provide funding to help bring SMRs to market.[5] It was not awarded any funding in the first round.[18] In the Department of Energy's (DOE) second round of funding in December 2013, NuScale won up to $226 million in "cost-sharing" funding to share the expense of pursuing government approval, through the SMR Licensing Technical Support program.[19] This was followed by an agreement in May 2014 for up to $217 million in funding over a five-year period, whereby the Department of Energy would match private funding.[20] In December 2012, co-founder and CEO Paul G. Lorenzini was succeeded by current CEO John Hopkins.[21]

In March 2012, NuScale signed an agreement with the Department of Energy, allowing NuScale and two partners to build and operate a NuScale-based nuclear power plant at the Savannah River Site.[22] The following month Energy Northwest said it didn't have any immediate plans to construct a nuclear power plant, but had evaluated all the available SMR technologies and identified NuScale as the best available option at the time.[23][24]

In July 2013, NuScale announced an effort to study and demonstrate NuScale reactors in the western United States, called Program WIN (Western Initiative for Nuclear),[20] with plans to build the first NuScale-based power plant in the western United States by 2024.[5] In November 2014, NuScale announced it was building what is expected to be the first SMR in the US in Idaho. The plant is for the Carbon Free Power Project with Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems. The company submitted designs to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) in January 2017, and if approved hoped to complete its first plant in 2026.[25]

In January 2018, the NRC agreed that the NuScale SMR does not need back-up power.[26]

In August 2020, the NRC issued a final safety evaluation report for NuScale's small modular reactor design, certifying the design as having met the NRC's safety requirements.[9] NuScale plans to apply for a standard design approval of a 60-megawatt-per-module version of the design in 2022, which if accepted will allow the company to pursue its first reactor deployment in the mid-2020s.[27][28]

NuScale is expected to be the first SMR to market, because its cooling is similar to the systems used in conventional power plants. However, alternative cooling systems using molten metals are expected to operate at higher, more efficient temperatures once approved.[30] The company estimates a twelve-unit NuScale plant would cost $4,200 (an earlier estimate was $5,000) per kilowatt. In comparison, the Energy Information Administration in 2011 estimated costs to be $4,700 per kilowatt for conventional nuclear power, $4,600 for a carbon sequestration coal plant and $931 at a gas-fired plant or in excess of $1,800 for a gas-fired plant with carbon sequestration.[5] David Mohre, executive director of NRECA's Energy and Power Division, said SMRs like NuScale's are ideal for rural towns that need small power plants and do not have access to natural gas.[16] NuScale power plants are also expected to take less time, materials and space to construct than other power sources and can be expanded incrementally to meet changing power needs.[4][33][39][40]

In addition to NuScale Power, other companies in the United States are working to develop plans to create and design small modular reactors. These companies include: Babcock & Wilcox, GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy, Gen4 Energy, Holtec International,[41] Intellectual Ventures, OPEN100,[42] Westinghouse Electric Company, and X-energy.[43]