EDF, Europe’s largest nuclear operator, announced on 2 December 2021, the establishment of International NUWARD™ Advisory Board (INAB) which gathers highly experienced and senior representatives from prominent international industry, academic and research organizations to provide value-driven insights, critical analysis and advice in relation to NUWARD™ technical features, industrial approach and economics. Fortum will be part of this advisory board, providing value-driven advice and insights on the ongoing development of NUWARD™ SMR.
NUWARD™, led by EDF, is a 340 MWe European Pressurized Water SMR plant composed of 2 reactors of 170 MWe each, designed to address the world energy mix decarbonization challenge with a complementary solution to large size reactors and renewables. This technology is aimed to replace old high-emitting coal, fuel, oil and gas plants around the world.
The INAB comprises international technical, industrial and academic expertice:
- The industry in Europe and worldwide: EDF UK (United Kingdom); Fortum (Finland); OPG (Canada); TVO (Finland); ÚJV Řež, a. s., a company of CEZ Group (Czech Republic);
- Academic and Research & Development bodies: Bhabha Atomic Research Center - BARC (India); Massachusetts Institute of Technology - MIT (United States); Politecnico di Milano (Italy).
The economic viability of SMR’s is based on serial production and high utilisation of standardised design. This means that country-specific design other than site-specific changes should be minimized.
“We want to support SMR technology development in general and development of harmonized European licensing scheme for SMR’s. EDF NUWARD™ is one of the most interesting SMR designs and a concrete project enabling focused and targeted European co-operation between industry and regulators. NUWARD™ has potential to become a design, which could be licensable in different European countries, and therefore supports claiming scalability benefits in Europe,” says Simon-Erik Ollus, Executive Vice President, Generation division and Fortum’s representative in the INAB.
“We expect SMR technology and licensing to significantly develop during upcoming years and we want to bring to the table our expertise as owner, operator and service provider to support this development,” he continues.
Fortum’s participation in INAB is non-exclusive and Fortum aims to continue dialogue and cooperation also with other potential SMR designers.
More information:
Eero Vesaoja, Senior Manager, Nuclear Strategy ＆ Development, +358 40 577 5701
Fortum
Fortum is a European energy company with activities in more than 40 countries. We provide our customers with electricity, gas, heating and cooling as well as smart solutions to improve resource efficiency. Together with our subsidiary Uniper, we are the third largest producer of CO2-free electricity in Europe. Close to 20,000 professionals and a combined balance sheet of approximately EUR 60 billion, we have the scale, competence and resources to grow and to drive the energy transition forward. Fortum's share is listed on Nasdaq Helsinki and Uniper's share on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. www.fortum.com