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The story
NuScale was founded based on research conducted by a team of nuclear scientists at Oregon State University (OSU) and funded by the United States Department of Energy (DOE) beginning in 2000. Full-scale prototype testing was performed at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) OSU researchers, headed by José N. Reyes Jr. developed a prototype SMR in 2007, which NuScale Power used to develop its first NRC approved power module. Much of the research was performed at OSU's Multi-Application Small Light Water Reactor (MASLWR) test facility starting in 2007, with full-scale prototype testing performed in Idaho at the INL in 2013. DOE funded the research from 2000 to 2003.
The same year Oregon State University constructed its one-third-scale reactor test facility (MASLWR), the university founded NuScale Power. Joint research between OSU and NuScale soon followed. As compensation for past research, OSU offered researchers opportunities to exchange patents for an equity stake in the new company. NuScale's first round in funding came in January 2008. The next month it began seeking certification with the NRC.
By 2011, NuScale had raised $35 million and had 100 employees in Tigard; Richland, Washington; and Corvallis, Oregon. NuScale was the first to submit SMR plans to the NRC and the first to gain approval. It was evaluated by a consortium of utility companies called Energy Northwest.
Funding difficulties and rebound
In January 2011, NuScale's largest investor, Kenwood Group, was investigated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and later pleaded guilty to operating a Ponzi scheme. The SEC investigation was not related to 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 and most of the company's employees were laid off.
That September, NuScale obtained a loan to re-hire 60 employees. In October, Fluor Corporation acquired a majority interest in the company for $3.5 million and promised almost $30 million in working capital. According to The Energy Daily, Fluor's investment saved the company, which had been "financially marooned" by its prior investor. A separate agreement gave Fluor the rights to construct NuScale-based power plants.
In August 2012, Rolls-Royce Holdings said it would support NuScale's commercialization efforts and help it obtain funding from DOE's funding opportunity announcement. In December 2012, co-founder Paul G. Lorenzini was replaced by John Hopkins as CEO. It was not funded in the first DOE's round. In the second round in December 2013, NuScale won up to $226 million in "cost-sharing" funding to share the expense of obtaining government approval, through the SMR Licensing Technical Support program. This was followed by an agreement in May 2014 for up to $217 million in funding over a five-year period, whereby DOE would match private funding.
In September 2020, the U.S. Department of Energy reported that it had provided more than $400 million since 2014 to support the NuScale development and that of other earlier stage domestic SMR designs.
2022 launch as a public company
In December 2021, the Fluor Corporation reported that it had invested over $600 million in NuScale since 2011, and that NuScale was expected to go public in 2022 with Fluor owning about 60% of the stock. In May 2022, NuScale completed a merger with the special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC), Spring Valley Acquisition Corp, raising $380 million of investment. NuScale Power Corporation then listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
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In September 2022, NuScale entered into an alliance with ENTRA1 Energy and the private asset management firm Habboush Group to commercialize the NuScale SMR. In May 2025, the relationship was described as "ENTRA1 Energy is NuScale's partner and independent power plant development platform, which holds the global exclusive rights to the commercialisation, distribution, and deployment of NuScale's SMRs." NuScale Power now limits itself to the production of the SMR modules rather than entire power plants. ENTRA1 and NuScale own a joint venture company, ENTRA1 NuScale LLC.
Carbon Free Power Project, Idaho
In November 2014, NuScale announced it would build what it expected to be the first US SMR at the Idaho National Laboratory. The plant was for Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems (UAMPS), a subdivision of the Government of Utah, on the Carbon Free Power Project (CFPP). UAMPS operates power plants in Wyoming, New Mexico, California, and Utah, selling to local utilities. The DOE could provide supporting funds of about $140 million/year over 10 years, awaiting more Congressional support.
The company submitted designs to the NRC in January 2017 for a 12 reactor power plant producing 570 MWe at a build cost under $3 billion. In 2020, DOE approved a $1.355 billion cost-share award.
As of 2021, eight cities had withdrawn from CFPP. In July 2021, the proposal was downsized to 6 reactors, and the expected electricity price increased to $58/MWh (¢5.8/kWh).
In April 2022, Doosan Enerbility was contracted to begin manufacturing reactor components for CFPP. Doosan Enerbility expected to reach full-scale production at their plant in Changwon, South Korea, in the second half of 2023.
In January 2023, CFPP approved a new Budget and Plan of Finance, establishing a target price of $89/MWh (¢8.9/kWh) after an estimated $30/MWh generation subsidy from the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). The projected build cost had increased to $9.3 billion for 462 MWe generation capacity from $3.6 billion for 720 MWe in 2020. $4.2 billion of the cost would be covered by the DOE and IRA support, leaving $5.1 billion of acquisition and construction costs to be covered by UAMPS members.
In November 2023, UAMPS announced it was unlikely that the project would have enough subscription to continue due to cost increases, and UAMPS and NuScale jointly decided to cancel the project. POWER magazine reported that the project had received $232 million of DOE financial support by the time it was cancelled.
Following the cancellation, NuScale laid off 154 of its staff (28%) as part of "taking steps to transition from R&D to commercialization".
Doicești, Romania
In November 2021, NuScale announced its intent to build with Nuclearelectrica its first reactors in Romania by 2028.
On December 28, 2022, Romanian company RoPower Nuclear contracted for Front-End Engineering and Design. The location was expected to be at Doicești Power Station, a former thermal power station. RoPower is a joint venture between Nuclearelectrica and Nove Power & Gas.
On July 25, 2024, RoPower Nuclear and Fluor Corporation signed the second stage Front-End Engineering and Design (FEED 2) contract, for the planned SMR project in Romania which will provide updated cost estimate and other analysis for a final investment decision. The Export–Import Bank of the United States approved a $98 million loan to RoPower Nuclear to support this design study, which would support 400 US jobs.
In February 2026, Nuclearelectrica made a decision in principle to invest in a 6-module NuScale SMR, subject to devising a funding plan. The Romanian Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan estimated the cost at $6–$7 billion and said "the complexity of such projects and the technology being in early days, I estimate we will not see the investment immediately." RoPower Nuclear will only pay for the first reactor module with NuScale responsible for the other five until the first module demonstrates full operation, which is planned for July 2033.
Other plans
In March 2012, NuScale signed an agreement with DOE that allowed NuScale and two partners to build and operate a NuScale-based nuclear power plant at a Savannah River site in South Carolina. The following month, Energy Northwest said it had no immediate plans to construct a nuclear power plant, but had evaluated all the available SMR technologies and identified NuScale as the best available option.
In July 2013, NuScale announced an effort to demonstrate NuScale reactors in the western United States, called Program WIN (Western Initiative for Nuclear), with plans to build the first NuScale-based power plant there by 2024.
In January 2018, the NRC agreed that the passive safety features allow NuScale's SMR design to operate safely without back-up power.
In August 2020, the NRC issued a final safety evaluation report, certifying the design as having met safety requirements.
In February 2022, NuScale and mining conglomerate KGHM announced a contract to construct an SMR in Poland by 2029. In April 2023, an application for a decision-in-principle to permit the project was submitted to the Polish government.
In January 2023, the NRC certified NuScale's 50 MWe design, known as the VOYGR, for use in the US. However this was for an earlier version of the design to the current 77 MWe design. The module and plant designs were resubmitted to the NRC in January 2023 for NuScale Power's four and six-reactor configurations, known as VOYGR-4 (US300) and VOYGR-6 (US460). In its acceptance review of the application, the NRC identified a number of sufficiency issues in the application, and requested supplemental information be supplied before NRC staff could accept the application for docketing and detailed technical review. The supplemental information was supplied in July 2023, and the NRC estimated the evaluation would be complete in July 2025. In May 2025, NuScale successfully obtained NRC-US licensing for their 77 MWe module and the two new plant configurations.
On August 29, 2024, Nuclear Power Ghana and Regnum Technology Group signed an agreement to build a 12-module nuclear power plant in Ghana during the US-Africa Nuclear Energy Summit in Nairobi, Kenya. In January 2025, an SMR simulator training centre was opened in Ghana, to train and educate the next generation in operating future civil nuclear reactors.
In 2023, NuScale submitted a new design for NRC approval to license its VOYGR-12. As of 2025, the 12-module, 924 MWe reactor design remains under NRC review.
In June 2025, NuScale announced new research findings showing how their plants can be used in clean water, reverse osmosis and hydrogen generation applications. Simulations showed a single NuScale Power Module could yield approximately 150 million gallons of clean water per day without generating carbon dioxide. 12 NPMs would be able to provide desalinated water for a city of 2.3 million residents and 200 metric tons of hydrogen per day or a surplus of power to provide 400,000 homes with electricity.
From Wikipedia’s article on NuScale Power, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.7