NuScale signs MoU on marine-deployed SMR power station

The two companies have been collaborating since 2018 to investigate the feasibility of integrating NuScale Power Modules into Prodigy's Marine Power Station, and have completed the conceptual design and economic assessment phases.

Quebec-based Prodigy aims to integrate commercial SMRs into marine power plant systems. Its Marine Power Station would be shipyard-fabricated, and transported by sea to its deployment location. Moored in place in sheltered and protected waters at the shoreline, the plant would then be connected to the existing shore-side transmission system. The Marine Power Station, coupled with factory fabricated NuScale Power Modules, would give customers a turnkey clean energy solution that is safer, more affordable, mobile, and flexible, NuScale said.

The NuScale Power Module is a pressurised water reactor with all the components for steam generation and heat exchange incorporated into a single unit. It has received standard design approval from the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission - the first and so far, only, SMR to do so. NuScale and Fluor are currently working for Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems (UAMPS) to bring an SMR project to commercialisation, aiming for the first plant to be in operation at a site in Idaho by 2030.

NuScale Power Chairman and CEO John Hopkins said: "Bringing our safe, scalable SMR design together with Prodigy's Marine Power Stations has the potential to better meet the growing demand for affordable, carbon-free power worldwide, including remote coastal locations and island nations."

Prodigy is one of over a hundred participating organisations in the Canadian government's SMR Action Plan, published in December 2020, which lays out next steps for the development, demonstration and deployment of SMRs for multiple applications at home and abroad following on from its 2018 SMR Roadmap.