Ex-Im Bank approves $98 million loan for fluorine work at Romanian nuclear plant

The Export-Import Bank of the United States has approved a $98 million loan for the second phase of an early engineering and design study by Fluor Corp. for a six-module 462MW small modular nuclear reactor in Romania, the country’s first, on the site of a former coal-fired power station in Doicești, near Bucharest, which will use technology from US developer NuScale Power Corp. Each module would be 77 MW.

Fluor, a majority investor in NuScale, was awarded the second-phase FEED contract in July by Romanian state-owned developer RoPower, in a joint announcement by the US Department of Energy and the Romanian Ministry of Energy. The award of the contract was not disclosed, but its completion will allow the project to reach a final investment decision and start construction, with commercial rollout expected in 2029.

Ex-Im Bank said “public and private partners” from Japan, South Korea and the United Arab Emirates have also “expressed interest” in early-stage financial support, which could amount to $275 million.

“When completed, this facility will be the first of its kind in Europe,” said Pierre Bechelany, president of Fluor’s LNG and energy business. The firm said it has established an office in Bucharest to carry out the work. The United States and Romania began working on the project in early 2019,

Other companies, including South Korea-based Samsung C&T Corp. and U.S.-based Sargent & Lundy, are working on other SMR projects using NuScale technology in Romania.

The Ministry of Energy has estimated that the Doicești project will need a budget of 5.3 billion dollars, with the Ex-Im Bank and the US International Development Finance Corp. pledging up to $4 billion in funding to build it. The ministry said it will help Romania reduce carbon emissions by about 4 million tons annually.

NuScale is the only company that has design approval from the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission and a license to build a small nuclear reactor in the US, but last year canceled its only national trial project when too many utility member customers opted out due to rising costs.

NuScale, which trades on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: SMR ), will report its third quarter 2024 results on a conference call on November 7.