GE Vernova, Hitachi, and Samsung Are Bringing Small Modular Reactors to Europe
Is Europe about to go all in on nuclear power?
Probably not, but the rapidly reemerging form of clean energy generation just received a significant boost. Representatives from global engineering companies GE Vernova (GEV +0.16%), Hitachi (HTHIY -1.84%), Samsung C&T, and SGE signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to cooperate on building and deploying small modular reactors (SMRs) in Europe. Here’s a look at the quartet’s ambitious goals.
Image source: Getty Images.
A new nuclear era?
For those who might not be familiar with the technology, an SMR is an advanced nuclear power plant design that has several key advantages over traditional plants. Firstly, they are much cheaper to build, and since they’re modular, they can be constructed remotely, away from the site where they’ll be located. Basically, they are smaller-scale, plug-and-play nuclear generators that are quicker to construct and easier to finance than classic nuclear power plants.
In an age when artificial intelligence (AI) data centers, with their immense energy needs, are being built out as quickly as possible, SMRs have great appeal. Not only that, but for years, Europe has sought to further reduce its dependence on Russia for inputs that power most energy-generating facilities, including nuclear ones. Again, SMRs would address this need elegantly — for fuel, they use standard low-enriched uranium (LEU), which can be entirely sourced from enrichment providers operating in the West.
Hence the agreement between the four major engineering companies, one of which (GE Vernova) is headquartered in the U.S., two are from Asia (Hitachi is Japanese, and Samsung C&T is South Korean), and the final one, SGE, is based in Europe, specifically Poland.
Appropriately enough for such a globe-spanning agreement, the MoU was signed during the Atlantic Council Nuclear Energy Policy Summit. That’s an event conducted on the sidelines of the current United Nations (UN) General Assembly in New York. The four companies will cooperate on market development and commercial opportunities for the BWRX-300, an SMR developed by subsidiaries of GE Vernova and Hitachi.
There is plenty of government support for the initiative, as evidenced by the presence of U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau and Japan’s Vice-Minister for International Affairs at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, Masayoshi Arai, at the signing. It’s also supported by a more general memorandum of cooperation (MoC), a trilateral government-level agreement signed between U.S., Japanese, and South Korean officials to jointly promote SMR deployment outside of their three nations. The MoC was signed during the most recent NATO summit.
A team of experts
In its press release on the MoU, GE Vernova wrote that the planned collaboration harnesses significant corporate know-how “in nuclear technology, engineering and project delivery, and regional development.”
As for its own participation, the American company quoted its chief corporate officer, Roger Martella, as saying that “GE Vernova has a long-standing history and presence across the European continent. This collaboration brings together complementary capabilities to help advance BWRX-300 deployment across multiple markets and build on the momentum already behind the technology.”
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Of course, this news is exciting for the future of energy generation in Europe, not to mention the fortunes of the four companies involved (plus their suppliers). We should bear firmly in mind, though, that an MoU is essentially a document in which several parties loosely agree to work together; it is not a contract that legally binds them to certain commitments.
That said, this gives each member at least a little skin in the game for nuclear power build-outs, which, for many policymakers around the world, are increasingly seen as an ideal choice for developing and improving energy infrastructure.
Since the MoU is very general and therefore quite open, it’s difficult or impossible to estimate how the fundamentals of GE Vernova and its partners might be affected by their combined work. Nevertheless, as agreed, the stated goal has enormous potential to benefit them handsomely indeed. Investors in any or all of the four would do well to watch how the MoU evolves into firm contracts going forward.
