LATEST President Biden announced at G7 that the US is preparing $4 billion in loans for Romania’s small nuclear reactor project to strengthen energy independence

US President Joe Biden announced Saturday at the Group of 7 (G7) major economies summit that two US government financial institutions have issued letters of interest for a potential $4 billion loan for the small nuclear reactor project in Romania, according to a White House statement.

The project is being developed by the US company NuScale in partnership with the Romanian state-owned company Nuclearelectrica at Doicești (Dâmbovița).

Support for the project was announced by the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), the U.S. government’s development finance institution that provides private investment opportunities for emerging markets ($1 billion), and the U.S. government bank EXIM (potential $3 billion loan).

„Building on previous U.S. government support for the development of the first SMR plant of its kind in Romania, using the U.S. firm’s NuScale Power technology and Fluor Corporation’s engineering and construction services, EXIM has issued a letter of interest for potential support of up to $99 million to RoPower Nuclear S.A. for design studies – along with expressions of interest from public and private partners in Japan, the Republic of Korea and the United Arab Emirates – which together total up to $275 million in the initial phase. These commitments, together with Romania’s new pledges, support the procurement of long-life materials, the completion of FEED (Front-End Engineering and Design) analysis, the provision of project management experts and on-site regulatory activities. In addition, DFC and U.S. EXIM have also issued letters of interest for potential support of up to $1 billion and $3 billion, respectively, for project deployment. When built, SMR will pave the way for innovative new energy technologies, accelerate the transition to clean energy, create thousands of jobs and strengthen European energy security while meeting the highest standards of nuclear safety, security and non-proliferation,” the White House release said.

Background. In January 2023, the US company NuScale Power and the Romanian company RoPower Nuclear, equally owned by Nuclearelectrica and Nova Power & Gas, signed the contract for phase 1 of the engineering and design works for the first small modular nuclear reactor plant in Romania.

Thus, RoPower becomes the second customer of the American company NuScale, with the plan to build the Doicești power plant (Dâmbovița).

The work to be undertaken by NuScale will define the main and specific site characteristics for a VOYGR-6 SMR plant that could be developed on the site of the Doicești power plant in Romania.

The eight-month project includes the issuance of sub-contracts for the environmental impact assessment and geotechnical subsurface investigation, site assessment and site-specific requirements for the standard design of the NuScale power plant, and development of a project-specific cost estimate.

„NuScale’s commencement of Phase 1 front-end engineering and design work in partnership with Nuclearelectrica/RoPower keeps Romania on track to become the first country in Europe to benefit from safe, reliable and carbon-free small modular reactor technology,” said John Hopkins, President and CEO of NuScale.

„The signing of the contract for the FEED work follows nearly four years of collaboration, research and studies to ensure we select the safest and most efficient technology and the right site,” said Cosmin Ghiță, CEO of Nuclearelectrica.

The start of this Phase 1 work comes after the signing in June 2022 of a Memorandum of Understanding between NuScale and Nuclearelectrica to begin conducting engineering studies, technical reviews and permitting and licensing activities for the project.