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In a statement to investors, Fluor said that it had signed a new contract with Romanian joint venture RoPower Nuclear for Phase 2 front-end engineering and design (FEED) work re-powering an existing coal plant using technology supplied by US-based SMR company NuScale Power.

A contract signing ceremony attended by the Romanian minister of energy Sebastian Burduja and the U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm took place on July 24. Photo: Fluor

Fluor, which is the majority owned of NuScale said that it had completed Phase 1 FEED work for the design of the new power plant last year. It said the new plant would be capable of producing up to 462 megawatts to European codes and standards.

RoPower Nuclear is a joint venture of Romania’s state-owned nuclear power company Nuclearelectrica and Romanian private power company Nova Power & Gas which owns the existing Doicesti plant.

The project has already received substantial support from both the Romanian and U.S. governments but the Romania government is set to make a preliminary investment decision on whether to go ahead with the proposed six-reactor SMR power plant in Doicesti next year.

NuScale signed an agreement in 2021 to work with Nuclearelectrica in 2021 on bringing SMR technology to Romania. NuScale’s SMR technology has already been certified by the US nuclear power regulator, the first such approval in the country.

However, NuScale’s planned project to build its first SMR in the USA at the Carbon Free Power Project in Idaho, was cancelled last year after investors pulled out.

In March, the US Ambassador to Romania, Kathleen Ann Kavalec, said that the partnership between Nuclearelectrica and NuScale could benefit from US financial support worth US$4 billion.

A contract signing ceremony took place during the Partnership for Transatlantic Energy and Climate Cooperation summit in Bucharest, Romania, on Wednesday, July 24.

The event was attended by Fluor and NuScale representatives, as well as Romanian Minister of Energy Sebastian Burduja and U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm.

“We are pleased to continue our role in supporting this important project to deploy the next generation of nuclear power to produce clean and reliable baseload electricity for Romania and Europe,” said Pierre Bechelany, President of Fluor’s LNG & Power business. “When completed, this facility will be the first of its kind in Europe.”