NuScale Power is looking for more investors, a month after announcing a $40 million equity buy-in from a Japanese contractor with a background in nuclear projects.
The Oregon company, founded in 2007, is working to deploy
its first small modular reactor (SMR) power plant in Idaho before the end of
the decade in a deal with a consortium of Western states municipal utilities.
NuScale said it retained Guggenheim Securities “to explore
financing options to accelerate the commercialization” of its SMR technology,
which the company is also pitching around the world.
The search for new investors is part of a strategy by Fluor
Corp. (NYSE: FLR), NuScale’s controlling partner, to reduce its equity stake in
the company.
The recent $40 million investment came from JGC HD, a
Japanese engineering, procurement and construction group.
Fluor’s chief executive, David Constable, said last week the
company is looking to “unlock more value from NuScale for Fluor's
shareholders.”
He suggested interest was high.
“It's very exciting times and not just in the U.S., but
internationally,” he told analysts. “Canada, obviously, is a nuclear country as
is Japan and many others that we're getting a lot of incoming interest. ... So
we've got renewed interest from existing investors that we've got and new
investors post the JGC announcement.”
NuScale expenses, net of contributions from the U.S.
Department of Energy, have averaged $63 million per year for Fluor over the
past three years, according to its recent annual report.
NuScale’s SMR last August became the first of its type to
receive a final safety evaluation report from the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission, although an advisory committee highlighted issues that will have to
be resolved when a prospective owner applies to build and operate a plant.
The prospective first owner is Utah Associated Municipal
Power Systems. A few of its members have gotten cold feet due to costs
concerns, but NuScale has moved to de-risk the project and make it less
expensive.
Agreements announced in January took the parties a step
closer to an order of NuScale power modules in 2022, and a combined license
application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in 2023.
The U.S. Department of Energy last year approved a $1.4
billion cost-share award for the UAMPS project, subject to future appropriation
by Congress. The American Jobs Plan that President Joe Biden is pitching
includes support for advanced nuclear power.
