Leading U.S. Small Modular Reactor (SMR) developer NuScale Power will tomorrow (13 July) strengthen its relationship with Sheffield’s Nuclear Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (Nuclear AMRC) by becoming a supporting partner and hosting the company’s first UK Supplier Day at the venue.

More than 100 engineering, manufacturing and construction companies from across the UK will have the opportunity to meet NuScale representatives and learn about the company’s programme of work.

This comes as part of a long-term objective to build NuScale’s UK supply chain in preparation for potential deployment in the UK market.

NuScale, which has been building a presence in the UK for three years and is participating in the Government’s competition to choose the best value SMR for the UK, is keen to develop lasting relationships with UK suppliers, small and large, from straight supply to build-to-print to strategic partnerships.

Speakers at the event will include key members of the NuScale executive team, as well as Fluor Limited, Ultra Electronics and the Nuclear AMRC itself.

NuScale Power will also announce that it has formally become a supporting partner of the Nuclear AMRC. Both organisations have been collaborating informally since 2014 but this agreement will further enable both organisations to support each other’s ambitions in the UK civil nuclear industry.

Both the Supplier Day and the latest collaboration agreement with the Nuclear AMRC underline NuScale’s intent to build a UK supply chain in preparation for potential deployment in the UK market.

Regarding the Supplier Day, NuScale Power’s Chairman and CEO John Hopkins said:

“Our vision of seeing the NuScale SMR deployed in the UK can and will only be achieved in partnership with Britain’s renowned engineering and industrial base.

“The Nuclear AMRC is a true leader in the UK for developing the advanced manufacturing techniques that will help to further reduce the cost and schedule of fabricating major engineered equipment such as the NuScale Power Module.

“We’re delighted to become a supporting partner and to be able to welcome more than a hundred organisations from the UK supply chain to Sheffield today.”

Mike Tynan, CEO of the Nuclear AMRC, said:

"We are delighted to support NuScale Power in its drive to bring SMR technology to the UK. There is a real opportunity for the nation to develop lasting value from SMR technology developed and installed in the UK, and exported into the global civil nuclear market. We will work with NuScale Power to find innovative solutions for the potential manufacturing of its technology for the UK, and we are pleased to host NuScale’s first UK supplier day in the advanced manufacturing heartland of the Sheffield city region."

NuScale is confident in the British nuclear industry’s capability to deliver on the vision of a multi-billion pound manufacturing and infrastructure venture, which could see NuScale Power Modules manufactured in the UK, deployed in the UK, and exported across Europe, bringing major benefits to the UK in terms of jobs and economic growth.

This builds on activities in the United States where NuScale is at an advanced stage of development. NuScale is the only SMR developer to be currently receiving U.S. Department of Energy match funding ($217M over 5 years), the only SMR developer to be close to submitting a Design Certification Application to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (this will happen later this year), and it has multiple active customer deployment projects underway. The first NuScale facility is planned to be in operation in 2024 in the state of Idaho.

About NuScale Power, LLC

NuScale Power, LLC is developing a new kind of nuclear plant; a safer, smaller, scalable version of pressurized water reactor technology, designed with natural safety features; a technology initially developed and tested at Oregon State University. Fluor Corporation (NYSE: FLR), a global engineering, procurement, and construction company with a 60-year history in commercial nuclear power, is the majority investor in NuScale. As the sole winner of the second round of the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) competitively-bid, cost-sharing program to develop nuclear small modular reactor (SMR) technology, NuScale's design offers the benefits of carbon-free nuclear power but takes away the issues presented by the cost of installing large capacity. A nuclear power plant using NuScale's technology is comprised of individual NuScale Power Modules™, each producing 50 megawatts of electricity (gross) with its own factory-built combined containment vessel and reactor vessel, and its own packaged turbine-generator set. A power plant can include as many as 12 NuScale Power Modules to produce as much as 600 MWe, gross (570 net, nominal, after house loads). The reactor coolant is driven by natural circulation and can be shut down safely with no operator action, no AC or DC power, and no external water supply. NuScale power plants are scalable - additional modules are added as customer demand for electricity increases. NuScale's technology also is ideally suited to supply energy for district heating, desalination, and other applications. NuScale is headquartered in Portland, Oregon and has offices in Corvallis, OR; Rockville, MD; Charlotte, NC; and London, UK.

To keep up to date on NuScale Power in the UK follow: @NuScale_UK on Twitter.