USA Started New Program for SMR Support

On the margins of the Three Seas Initiative Summit in Bucharest, Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry announced U.S. actions to further the role of new nuclear technologies in accelerating the clean energy transition. These actions expand on Romania’s leadership role in building the first small modular reactor (SMR) in Europe and in converting a former coal plant to advance nuclear energy.

The Three Seas Initiative was launched in 2016 and includes Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Austria, Estonia, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Latvia and Lithuania.

John Kerry also launched the Nuclear Expediting the Energy Transition (NEXT) One Stop Shop for SMR Support. The One Stop Shop will provide countries in Europe and Eurasia that are approaching SMR deployment decisions at the NEXT virtual center where they can apply for a suite of advanced project preparation tools and services.

The NEXT project includes technical, financial and regulatory consultancies and advisory services; expert study tours to visit U.S. nuclear facilities, national laboratories, and universities as well as competitively selected provision of an SMR simulator to support workforce development. Besides the program will contribute to university-to-university partnerships for curricula development, faculty and graduate student and other educational exchanges.

During the side event which took place at the Politehnica University of Bucharest, John Kerry said that project proposals from Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Poland were competitively selected to participate in Project Phoenix and will receive support for coal-to-SMR feasibility studies. Also the training center for SMR simulator which was installed earlier this year was presented at the event.

It is necessary to point out that Phoenix and NEXT projects are subprograms of the U.S. Department of State’s Foundational Infrastructure for the Responsible Use of Small Modular Reactor Technology (FIRST) Program. The United States is committed to supporting the use of innovative, safe, and secure clean energy technologies to power global decarbonization efforts, advance energy security worldwide, and provide options to achieve net zero transition in hard-to-abate energy sectors.