January 4 (SeeNews) - U.S.-based NuScale said on Wednesday that it has signed a contract with Romanian project company RoPower Nuclear for the first phase of front-end engineering and design (FEED) work for the deployment of the first small modular reactor (SMR) power plant in Europe.
"The eight-months project includes the issuance of subcontracts to perform an environmental impact assessment and subsurface geotechnical investigation, an evaluation of site and site-specific requirements for the standard plant design, and the development of a project-specific cost estimate," Portland, Oregon-headquartered NuScale said in a press release.
"We are proud to advance our partnership with NuScale and start the in-depth analysis and project planning on Doicesti site," said Cosmin Ghita, CEO of Nuclearelectrica.
RoPower Nuclear, equally owned by nuclear power plant operator Nuclearelectrica [BSE:SNN] and partner Nova Power & Gas, was awarded a $14 million (13.1 million euro) grant by the U.S. Trade and Development Agency in October for deploying an SMR plant in Romania, which will be the first in Europe.
Blue-chip Nuclearelectrica's shares traded 0.23% higher at 44 lei ($9.49/8.93 euro) as at 1433 CET on Wednesday on the Bucharest bourse.
(1 euro=4.9264 lei)