Industry Update—February 2025

Washington state public power agency Energy Northwest has selected the AtkinsRéalis Group as the owner’s engineer for its small modular reactor project. Energy Northwest owns and operates the Columbia nuclear power plant. The company is also developing as many as 12 SMRs in a project with X-energy and Amazon that involves environmental, safety, permitting, licensing, and risk analyses; design; and construction. According to the new owner’s engineering services contract, AtkinsRéalis will provide its support for the designing, licensing, construction, and commissioning of these SMRs, with this support work to be performed at the recently opened AtkinsRéalis Technology Center in Richland, Wash.

Representatives of the United States and Lithuania have signed an intergovernmental agreement on the development of Lithuania’s civil nuclear power program, with an emphasis on the deployment of SMRs. The agreement calls for the U.S. Department of Energy to prepare a technology assessment report on SMRs for Lithuania by 2028, when the Lithuanian government is expected to make a decision on the construction of these advanced reactors in the country. The DOE report is to include a market analysis of SMR technology, an evaluation of the risks of SMR technology, a life-cycle assessment of reactor installation, a siting analysis of new nuclear facilities, and an analysis of potential project financing arrangements and sources.

Westinghouse Electric Company and Core Power have reached a cooperative agreement to advance the design and development of a floating nuclear power plant based on Westinghouse’s eVinci microreactor and heat pipe technology. The companies also agreed to collaborate on the development of a regulatory approach to licensing floating nuclear power plant systems. Westinghouse and Core Power hope to demonstrate the viability of using the eVinci microreactor for remote locations, maritime and coastal applications, and disaster relief efforts. Besides generating electricity, the eVinci can produce high-temperature heat for industrial applications and hydrogen for use as an alternative fuel.

Maryland-headquartered X-energy has signed a memorandum of understanding with Norsk Kjernekraft to collaboratively explore the deployment of SMRs in Norway. The collaboration, which also includes DL Energy and DL E&C (from South Korea’s DL Group), combines the nuclear power plant construction expertise of DL with the high-temperature, gas-cooled pebble-bed reactor technology of X-energy in order to evaluate the feasibility of building an SMR plant at the site of the Mongstad oil refinery, in Norway’s Austrheim and Alver municipalities. Norsk Kjernekraft hopes to build such a facility by the mid-2030s. X-energy’s Xe-100 SMR is designed to operate as a standard 320-MWe four-pack power plant or as scaled units of 80 MWe.

Norway’s Halden Kjernekraft has selected Virginia-based Amentum, as well as Multiconsult Norge, to evaluate the potential deployment of SMRs in Norway, with a focus on the southeastern municipality of Halden. The municipality’s government along with Norsk Kjernekraft and Ostfold Energi had established Halden Kjernekraft to investigate such SMR deployment. Amentum and Multiconsult will work together on the assessment of possible suppliers of equipment and services—from both Norway and other nations—and on the evaluation of technical standards, environmental impact, and other aspects of any SMR construction program.

U.S.-based repository developer DeepGeo and Danish advanced reactor designer Copenhagen Atomics have signed an agreement to collaborate on the investigation of the radioactive materials and fuel needs of Copenhagen Atomics’ 100-MWt modular thorium molten salt reactor. This reactor is moderated with unpressurized heavy water, consumes nuclear waste for fuel, and breeds new fuel from thorium. The nuclear waste, which consists of used fuel from light water reactors, includes plutonium. The plutonium “kickstarts” the use of the thorium by the reactor. The collaboration between the companies is to encompass the areas of technology; fuel and waste characterization; and legislation and regulations for handling, transporting, and disposing of materials between countries. The initial goals of the collaboration are to establish a clearer understanding of the economy and requirements of the reactor process and to distinguish unusable waste from material with commercial value.

The investment firm C5 Capital and the mining and metals processing group Sibanye-Stillwater have formed a strategic partnership to develop advanced nuclear energy opportunities in South Africa and elsewhere. The partnership is evaluating opportunities for identifying, acquiring, financing, developing, and managing uranium projects and production facilities that have the potential to supply uranium fuel for SMRs. Washington, D.C.–based C5 Capital, which invests in advanced nuclear, space, and cybersecurity projects and is a signatory of the Net Zero Nuclear Industry Pledge, is working to invest in strengthening the resilience of the global nuclear value chain. Sibanye-Stillwater owns interests in mine tailings retreatment operations, including approximately 60 million pounds of uranium and gold mineral resources at its Cooke and Beatrix operations in South Africa.

The United Arab Emirates’ diversified energy group Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) and the Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation (ENEC) have signed a strategic collaboration agreement to evaluate the development and deployment of SMRs and other advanced nuclear technologies to support the kingdom’s energy diversification strategy. The agreement includes a comprehensive technical and economic assessment to identify the best-fit nuclear reactor technologies for the UAE, with recommendations to be made for advanced technologies that can be demonstrated through existing or upcoming pilot projects.

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENTS

Kentucky land acquired for Paducah Laser Enrichment Facility

Global Laser Enrichment (GLE) has acquired a 665-acre parcel of land in Kentucky for its planned Paducah Laser Enrichment Facility. The company obtained the land in a deal with the government of Kentucky (the previous owner), the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources (the previous manager), and the Paducah–McCracken County Industrial Development Authority. The acquired site, which is located next to the Department of Energy’s former Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant, offers easy and timely access to the cylinder yard where inventories of depleted uranium hexafluoride tails are stored. GLE has performed geotechnical analyses of the site to support its submissions to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission of an environmental report and a license application. The environmental report was submitted in December 2024, and the license application is expected to be submitted in summer 2025.

The German nuclear waste management services provider GNS Gesellschaft für Nuklear-Service has acquired powder metallurgy specialist Powder Light Metals. PLM develops and manufactures nanostructured lightweight alloys, which are important for GNS’s new generation of CASTOR casks, used to store and transport spent nuclear fuel. Specifically, the borated aluminium components supplied by PLM are used in the baskets of the new CASTOR geo casks, the first of which was loaded at the Doel nuclear power plant in Belgium in 2024. PLM will operate as an independent but wholly owned subsidiary of GNS under the name GNS Power Alloys.

The American Energy Society (AES) has recognized Atlanta-­based Southern Company with its Utility of the Year Award for 2024. The award highlights Southern Company’s opening of the two new nuclear reactors at Plant Vogtle, near Augusta, Ga. Commercial operation of Plant Vogtle’s Westinghouse AP1000 Unit 3 began in July 2023, and that of the AP1000 Unit 4 in April 2024.

CONTRACTS

Netherlands seeks guidance on new nuclear units

Virginia-based Amentum has signed a contract with the government of The Netherlands to fully review and provide advice on the technical feasibility studies submitted by three potential vendors for two new nuclear reactors. Westinghouse Electric Company, Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power, and EDF were contracted by the Dutch government to conduct feasibility studies on the deployment of new reactors at the Borssele nuclear power plant. The government’s preliminary plans call for two reactors, each with a capacity of 1000 to 1650 MWe, to be completed by about 2035. Amentum, with support from CMS Lawyers, PA Consulting, and ENCO, was contracted to “provide independent advice on the technical and market viability of constructing two nuclear power plants, and to deliver advisory input to enable an informed decision on design and financing.”

A wide-ranging memorandum of understanding on nuclear energy cooperation has been signed by Finland’s Minister of Climate and the Environment, Kai Mykkänen, and the United Kingdom’s Minister for Energy Security and Net Zero, Lord Hunt of Kings Heath. The MOU establishes a bilateral framework for collaboration on nuclear energy programs, research and development, and policies. The agreement stresses a technology-inclusive approach that includes traditional large-scale reactors and small modular reactors, and it notes “the potential of advanced nuclear technologies for electricity production as well as heat and hydrogen production as well as other non-power applications.” It also notes the importance of diversification of the fuel supply, boosting of energy security, and fusion-related research activities.

Spain’s Enresa and Finland’s Posiva Oy have signed MOUs with South Korea’s Korea Radioactive Waste Agency (KORAD) to strengthen international cooperation in the management of radioactive waste. Enresa operates the low- and intermediate-level radioactive waste disposal facility in El Cabril, Spain, and has a pending operating license for the world’s first high-level radioactive waste disposal facility, slated to open in 2025. The Enresa MOU will help KORAD expand and promote its projects on the treatment and disposal of decommissioning waste while also gaining experience in the operation of a high-level waste facility.

Posiva and its subsidiary Posiva Solutions—both jointly owned by the Finnish nuclear power companies TVO and Fortum—have a pending operating license for Finland’s geological disposal facility at the Olkiluoto site through 2070. Posiva’s MOU with KORAD will enable the Korean agency to secure additional technological capabilities in high-level radioactive waste management.

The multinational engineering services firm AFRY has signed a framework agreement with Norwegian Nuclear Decommissioning (NND) to support the decommissioning of nuclear facilities and the disposal of radioactive waste in Norway. The agreement is initially slated to last for four years and includes an option for a two-year extension. AFRY is one of six companies with which NND has secured agreements to assist with its mission, which began with the agency’s establishment in 2018. These agreements reportedly have a total estimated value of 890 million Swedish krona ($81 million). AFRY, which now has an office presence in more than 40 countries and supports missions in more than 100 countries, traces its corporate roots to Sweden in the 1890s.