The first American NuScale Mini Nuclear Reactor (SMR) project was supposed to be implemented in the United States, but it failed, leaving the German project in an “advantageous position”. Teofil Mureșan, CEO of E-Infra Group, a private investor involved in Doicești along with Nuclearelectrica, revealed that the American project was much more complex, and there the SMR technology was only a part. In addition, the US has cheaper gas projects that investors there are targeting, says Energy Minister Sebastien Burduya. At the moment, we do not know how much the Doicești project will cost.

In Deutschland, the project is being developed by RoPower, a joint venture between the state-owned company Nuclearelectrica and Nova Power and Gas, a private company from Cluj, from the E-Infra group.

Teofil Muresan, CEO of E-Infra, says that the transition to clean energy will not be possible without small nuclear reactors and that the whole world is now focused on bringing the new technology to market.

“I’m an energy professional and wanted to see NuScale technology in Cornwall, USA with my own eyes. Of course, it’s not just NuScale, SMR is a technology that is being pushed by several companies, it’s a race: Russia, China, Canada, USA, France, UK. It makes sense to discuss with the most advanced,” Mureşan showed during the ZF Power Summit.

The discussion is no longer about security, but about costs

Two years ago there was a debate about how safe this energy is, now there is no debate because they are considered safe, two levels higher than classical technologies. From the point of view of security, we no longer have a question mark, he believes.

Now we are talking about expenses.

Muresan was asked why the development of the project continued in Romania, since it was too expensive to continue it in the USA?

“That’s a misinterpretation,” he replied.

“SMR projects are still under discussion in the US with various potential partners. The project in the USA provides for the supply of heating agent to several city halls. Municipalities decided that heating agent costs would ultimately be higher with this technology and did not want to go any further.

In my opinion, it was too complicated, too big a project, where it was only partially about SMR technology and with many factors involved in the decision,” Muresan argued.

At the same event yesterday, this topic was also touched upon by Energy Minister Sebastian Burduja, who explained that the difference in US and EU approaches to gas projects also matters.

In the EU, gas is considered a non-priority resource and is no longer subsidized by public funds, as in the USA.

“A lot has been said about the Idaho project, the reality is that this project failed for commercial reasons only. This is due to the fact that gas in the USA is not fined, as in the European Union, and then dozens of utility companies, which had to sign up there, chose not a new technology, but a cheaper one based on gas,” explained V. minister

At the moment we do not know the exact costs from Doicești

According to Mureşan, financial costs also factor heavily into this equation.

“Costs have increased a lot with the increase in financial costs, because we are talking about large investments with a very long payback period. In general, investment costs have increased significantly as interest rates have increased. Those with long recovery times have the greatest impact. If we subtract these increases from the initial costs, we are left with the same costs,” he noted.

As for the Doicești project, now is the time to start the second phase of investment, at the end of which the cost of the project will be known.

“Now we are analyzing the project in detail. We are entering a working project where we will know: how many cubes of concrete, how much the turbine costs. I can’t estimate the cost, but it’s far from what the market is talking about. If it was that far, it wouldn’t have entered this stage.

The decision for small reactors – and there will probably be even smaller ones, 15 MW, 20 MW – is a decision that will change the world’s energy equation. For sources of high power operating in the band, it is impossible to make the transition to clean energy without this nuclear energy. We need all clean sources.”

It is planned that the plant in Deutschest will have 462 MW, six reactors of 77 MW each and will be operational no later than 2030.

Costs will decrease over time

The cost of the new technology will decrease significantly every year and as the number of units increases, Mureșan also said, giving the example of renewable energy technologies.

“In solar energy, the cost of an installed MW is now about half of what it was three years ago. In just one year, the costs of storage, batteries and inverters have been cut in half. What seemed unsustainable two or three years ago became sustainable almost instantly.

I think the same will happen with many other technologies that seem expensive now, such as hydrogen, sea or nuclear power, when they enter large-scale projects, the costs will undergo very large adjustments, and all policies will have to be adapted to subsidize or approach of these technologies,” says the representative of E-Infra.

Nuclearelectrica is considering a further 30 SMR sites across the region

If it is successful here, the project from Germany can be exported to other countries in the region, says Burduya.

“Economies of scale are very important in this type of SMR project. If the first units cost more, let’s say a few billion dollars, then the tenth block, the fiftieth, the hundredth block will cost much less, because a whole production chain is created, there are economies of scale, and Romania has an extraordinary potential to be a provider of such projects for the whole area .

In Nuclearelectrica’s analysis, there are somewhere around 30 sites almost identical or very similar to the Deutsches site throughout the region, in the former communist quarter, where similar projects were created on a copy-and-paste basis, as it was back then.” , – says the Minister of Energy.

Two weeks ago, HotNews.ro made a video report in Deutschest, a commune in Dambovica County, where the first nuclear mini-reactors using American technology will be built, which you can watch here: