Fluor Corporation-owned NuScale Power will go public through a merger with Spring Valley Acquisition Corporation, which is a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC). The merger will give the combined entity a $1.9 billion valuation, including debt, and $413 million in gross proceeds.
NuScale will use the capital to advance its small modular nuclear reactor technology and other commercial products, as well as achieve positive cash flow. SPACs are publicly-traded shell companies that merge with an unlisted company to take it public. It is quicker and easier.
After the deal closes, the new company named NuScale Power Corporation will list on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol "SMR". Fluor expects to own 60% of the combined company.
While this move is financially sound and moves the business end forward faster, the biggest obstacle to any new nuclear power plant remains the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).
The world is moving forward on building and deploying small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs). Canadian Nuclear Laboratories announced SMR technology as a research priority and Canada now has a roadmap for SMRs, including building an SMR demonstration plant by 2026, with Terrestrial Energy’s Integrated Molten Salt Reactor topping the list.
China is also moving fast on its 100 MW SMR designed by the China National Nuclear Corporation. Called the Linglong One, this ACP100 nuclear reactor has completed its preliminary design stage and is qualified for construction in Hainan province this year.
But the sprint in the United States is being led by NuScale. NuScale was the first SMR company to file its 5-year, 12,000-page design certification application with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and it is the first one to have the NRC complete their reviews and approve the design – in record time.
One reason for this is that NuScale’s SMR design is a small version of the general light-water reactors that the NRC has regulated for decades. NRC knows them. They have all the staff required to approve them. There are no real unknowns or surprises here. Yet the NRC dithers in the face of the climate crisis’ need for expanding nuclear as fast as possible.
This is exactly the focus of a new report just out yesterday by the Nuclear Innovation Alliance, entitled "Promoting Efficient NRC Advanced Reactor Licensing Reviews to Enable Rapid Decarbonization."
This familiar design basis puts NuScale ahead of other new reactor designs that are not light-water reactors. For those other types of reactors, NRC does not have the staff or the experience to license them and will have to gear up considerably over many years, if past NRC performance is any indication.
The industry understands that major reforms are needed at the NRC in order to pave the way for advanced reactors. According to Senior Nuclear Energy Analyst Dr. Adam Stein, “Congress directed the NRC to streamline the licensing processes for advanced reactors with the passage of NEIMA, but the reforms are trailing the licensing needs of applicants and are unavailable at this critical moment.”
“As the necessity of decarbonizing our energy grid and power sector becomes more urgent, advanced nuclear energy designs will need to be permitted far quicker than the NRC is currently prepared or equipped for. Congress must act to force the NRC to comply with NEIMA and speed up its design certification and permitting process.”
With the deadlines for decarbonization fast approaching, if not already here, the idea of slow-walking new reactor certifications, let alone not speeding them up, is insane and shows a true disdain for ever addressing climate change.
Recently NuScale announced their Flagship Small Modular Reactor Power Plant, named VOYGR™.
As the first and only SMR to receive design approval from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the VOYGR plants are a near-term deployable advanced nuclear generation solution for customers that seek a reliable, safe, and carbon-free solution. The VOYGR-12 scalable power plant design can accommodate up to 12 NuScale Power Modules™ (NPM), resulting in a total gross output of 924 megawatts electric (MWe). NuScale also offers smaller scalable power plant solutions, the four-module VOYGR-4 (308 MWe) and six-module VOYGR-6 (462 MWe).
The VOYGR plants are backed by strong supply chain development, standard plant design finalization, and planning of plant delivery activities, as well as startup and commissioning plans. NuScale is on track to deliver the first VOYGR plant to the Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems Carbon Free Power Project by the end of the decade, and has seen considerable interest from around the world, including from Poland, Kazakhstan, and Romania.
