PORTLAND, Ore.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--NuScale Power, LLC, announced today that Rolls-Royce joined Fluor Corporation in backing NuScale’s bid to commercialize small modular reactor (SMR) nuclear technology globally and are playing a key role in NuScale’s submission to the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) to bring its scalable, SMR reactor to market by 2025.

“With the addition of Rolls-Royce’s world-class manufacturing capability to the NuScale team, we bring a wealth of experience to the development, production, and maintenance of advanced nuclear technologies across global markets,” stated John Hopkins, NuScale’s chief executive officer. “Rolls-Royce has more than 50 years of nuclear heritage and this provides deep technical experience, state-of-the-art manufacturing support and access to world-class engineering for NuScale to advance its design through licensing to commercialization.”

Jason Smith, Rolls-Royce president Nuclear said, “Rolls-Royce is pleased to support NuScale Power in its submission to the US DOE Small Reactor Development Program. Rolls-Royce has a rich 50-year nuclear heritage spanning reactor and component design and manufacture through operational support to obsolescence management and plant life extension. The combination of skills and experience that sits within both organizations is world-class and proven across the global energy sector. We will now work hard to win the privilege to support the US DOE in realizing its goals through the development of the SMR program.”

As the only U.S.-based company established solely for the deployment and commercialization of its SMR technology, NuScale has developed unique and proprietary break-through technology for an innovative, simple, safe, economic, and scalable small modular reactor. Using proven light water reactor (LWR) technology, the NuScale Power Module is cooled by natural circulation, is entirely self-contained and installed underwater and underground to maximize safety. At 45 MWe per operating module, the NuScale SMR design is attractive to markets that no other LWR SMR design can reach. A NuScale power plant can include as many as 12 NuScale Power Modules to produce as much as 540 MWe.

The NuScale design also represents 100 percent factory-fabricated modules, including containment, and is fully transportable by truck, rail or barge to deployment sites. It takes advantage of the “economies of small” enhancing potential market acceptance through improved safety, efficient operation, and attractive economics.

NuScale was the first U.S.-based SMR vendor to begin discussions with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) when it was issued an NRC project number (0767) in April 2008. The company has been engaged in NRC pre-application discussions since that time. NuScale’s application in response to the FOA details its approach to achieve a U.S. NRC Certification in a timeframe that would support commercial operation by 2024.

About Rolls-Royce

Rolls-Royce is a world-leading provider of power systems and services for use on land, at sea and in the air, and has established a strong position in global markets - civil aerospace, defense aerospace, marine and energy. As a result of this strategy, Rolls-Royce has a broad customer base comprising more than 300 airlines, 4,000 corporate and utility aircraft and helicopter operators, 160 armed forces, more than 4,000 marine customers, including 70 navies, and energy customers in more than 80 countries. Rolls-Royce employs over 45,000 people in offices, manufacturing and service facilities in over 50 countries.

In North America, Rolls-Royce employs more than 9,300 people in 66 locations in 26 states and 7 sites in 6 Canadian provinces. Rolls-Royce has operated in America for more than 100 years. Today Rolls-Royce employs more than 7,700 people across 26 states. It operates 15 manufacturing, assembly or test facilities in 10 states including California, Indiana, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Ohio, Texas, Virginia and Washington.

About NuScale Power, LLC

NuScale Power, LLC is developing an inherently safe, modular, scalable commercial nuclear power technology. Fluor Corporation (NYSE: FLR), a global engineering, procurement and construction company with a 60-year history in commercial nuclear power, is the majority investor in NuScale. NuScale's design offers the benefits of carbon-free nuclear power but takes away the issues presented by the cost of installing large capacity. A nuclear power plant using NuScale's technology is comprised of individual nuclear power modules; each produces 45 megawatts of electricity with its own combined containment vessel and reactor system, and its own designated turbine-generator set. A power plant can include as many as 12 NuScale integral PWR modules to produce as much as 540 megawatts. The reactors are cooled by the natural convection of water and can be shut down safely without pumps or other mechanical systems. NuScale power plants are scalable - additional modules are added as customer demand for electricity increases. NuScale's technology also is ideally suited to supply energy for district heating, desalination and other applications.