“When NuScale was founded, the Department of Energy launched a challenge to the company: can you design an advanced small modular reactor, putting safety first, it’s not about costs,” Hopkins said.
This is what it is about, safety. The company wants to build those reactors in a plant and could have a plant in Romania, for instance, which should generate high-paying jobs. At the same time, these SMR attract other investments, he added.
Why Romania? It is about what the customer wants. We want to deliver the reactors by 2027. The customer needs them for 2029. It is not that NuScale chose Romania, but that Romania must accommodate environmental requirements. Romania has got good workforce, has already got nuclear technology, which it understands, the official said.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)