U.S. and Romania Pursue Small Modular Reactor Partnership

The U.S. Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) has awarded a grant to Romania’s RoPower Nuclear SA (RoPower) for a front-end engineering and design (FEED) study to develop the country’s first small modular reactor (“SMR”) nuclear power plant. The SMR plant—potentially the first in Europe—is intended to advance both the United States’ and Romania’s clean energy transition and energy security goals. The civil-nuclear industry partnership opportunity is a product of the USTDA’s Global Partnership for Climate-Smart Infrastructure effort to connect U.S. industry to major clean energy and transportation infrastructure projects in emerging economies.
 
President Biden announced support for Romania’s civil nuclear development and the FEED study opportunity at the G-7 Leader’s Summit in Germany on June 26, 2022. The grant also follows the announcement by Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry and Romanian president Klaus Iohannis at COP 26 in 2021 of plans to build a first-of-its-kind SMR plant in Romania. The USTDA helps companies create U.S. jobs through the export of U.S. goods and services for priority infrastructure projects in emerging economies.
 
RoPower Nuclear SA, the project company for deploying the small modular reactors in Romania, selected Oregon-based NuScale Power, LLC, to carry out the FEED study. The U.S. Department of State contributed funding toward USTDA’s grant award; RoPower and NuScale will contribute additional resources toward the FEED study’s completion. The first power plant based on the NuScale SMR design is expected to begin operation in the United States by the end of the decade. The USTDA-funded FEED study will facilitate the deployment of this design to Romania by focusing on its adaptation to site-specific requirements at the Doiceşti Power Station, which is the location of a former coal-fired power plant.
 
Read the USDTA’s full announcement here.