NuScale Power has selected Virginia-based BWX Technologies, Inc. (BWXT) to start the engineering work to manufacture NuScale’s small modular reactor (SMR). The decision follows a rigorous 18-month selection process, with expressed interest from 83 companies based in 10 countries, to determine the best company to refine NuScale’s design for manufacturability, assembly, and transportability—the first phase in bringing NuScale’s pioneering design to life.

NuScale’s technology is the world’s first and only SMR to undergo Design Certification review by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission and is the country’s frontrunner to compete in the global SMR race, a market estimated by the Nuclear Energy Agency to be more than $100 billion by 2035.

BWXT will immediately start work on this first manufacturing phase of NuScale’s SMR, expected to continue through June 2020. NuScale will contract for the remaining two phases, preparation for fabrication then fabrication, at a later date.

BWXT is a leading supplier of nuclear components and fuel to both the US government and commercial nuclear power industry. It expects to use Pennsylvania-based Precision Custom Components as a component manufacturing contractor on this project.

The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission is scheduled to approve NuScale’s Design Certification application in September 2020. NuScale’s first customer, Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems, is on track to deploy the country’s first SMR plant in the mid-2020s.

NuScale Power is developing a new modular light water reactor nuclear power plant to supply energy for electrical generation, district heating, desalination, and process heat applications. This small modular reactor (SMR) design features a fully factory-fabricated NuScale Power Module capable of generating 60 MW of electricity using a safer, smaller, and scalable version of pressurized water reactor technology. NuScale’s scalable design—a power plant can house up to 12 individual power modules—offers the benefits of carbon-free energy and reduces the financial commitments associated with gigawatt-sized nuclear facilities.

The majority investor in NuScale is Fluor Corporation, a global engineering, procurement, and construction company with a 60-year history in commercial nuclear power.