France-based startup welcomes ‘resounding endorsement’ at state level of its technology
Newcleo has signed two deals with Slovakia’s nuclear companies Javys and Vuje to build up to four advanced nuclear plants costing €3.2bn ($3.3bn), the reactor technology firm said.
Under the first agreement, Newcleo and state nuclear and decommissioning company Javys will set up a joint venture to build up to four of Newcleo’s Generation IV lead-cooled fast reactor, or LFR-AS-200, nuclear plants at the existing Bohunice site in western Slovakia.
The second agreement with engineering company Vuje sets a framework for technical and commercial cooperation to support Newcleo's development and implementation of its LFR technology, primarily in Slovakia.
Newcleo aims to build LFRs that will allow the use of Slovakian spent nuclear fuel as fuel, potentially offering a sustainable solution to deal with nuclear waste.
Newcleo and Javys also plan to develop a nuclear fuel supply route, with the support of the French government. The aim is to reprocess and use Slovakian spent nuclear fuel and enable long term multi-recycling as part of a closed fuel cycle – a process that reprocesses spent nuclear fuel to recover uranium and plutonium, which are then reused to create new fuel.
Newcleo founder and chief executive officer Stefano Buono called the agreements “a resounding endorsement at state level” of the company’s reactor technology and its aim to close the nuclear fuel cycle. He said the agreements are testament to the role small and advanced modular reactors will play in securing Europe’s energy future “and provide an example that could be used in other European countries, whose only other option for dealing with spent fuel would be costly long-term storage”.
Buono said: “The re-use of the existing nuclear spent fuel also guarantees hundreds of years of energy independence to Europe at competitive and stable prices, a necessary step to increase the competitiveness of EU Industry.
Slovakia ‘At Forefront’ Of Nuclear Development
Javys chairman Peter Gerhart said: “We believe that utilising spent nuclear fuel in advanced reactors like Newcleo’s LFR technology offers a far more sustainable and responsible solution than simply putting it in a deep geological repository.”
Vuje chief executive officer said the agreements position Slovakia “at the forefront of advanced nuclear development”.
Last year Newcleo moved headquarters from London to Paris. It has employees based in 19 locations across France, Italy, the UK, Switzerland and Slovakia, including three manufacturing facilities.
Newcleo said it has raised a total of over €537m from institutional and individual investors and has seen an increasing number of European players joining its growing funding base.
Newcleo was founded in 2021 by Stefano Buono, an Italian physicist and alumnus of the European Organisation for Nuclear Research.
Lead-cooled nuclear plants are not yet operating, but are being developed as next-generation reactors. Lead has a very high boiling temperature of 1,749°C which means the problem of coolant boiling is for all practical purposes eliminated. This brings with it important safety advantages that also result in design simplification and improved economic performance.
