NuScale Power Corp. and Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems said Nov. 8 they had agreed to terminate the Carbon Free Power Project.
They said it appeared unlikely the project would have enough subscription to continue toward deployment. They now will work with the Department of Energy to wind down the project, which would have been built at DOE’s Idaho National Laboratory.
NuScale announced the news with its third-quarter earnings after the stock market closed Nov, 8. NuScale stock, which had been trading near a 52-week low, plummeted in after-hours trading.
The CFPP was to be the first NuScale small modular reactor to begin operation in the United States, with the first of six 77 MW modules to start generating power in 2029.
In its third quarter 8-K filing with the SEC, the company said it would transfer materials intended for the CFPP project to use with another customer.
NuScale had indicated in a March earnings call that the project was 25% subscribed to but needed to reach 80%.
During the conference call Nov. 8, company leaders said the goal proved unreachable.
NuScale CEO John Hopkins quoted the wisdom of the native peoples of the Great Plains: “Once you’re on a dead horse, you dismount quickly and move on to others.”
He said he was proud of the work done on CFPP over the years.
The company said about half the cost NuScale incurred in developing CFPP is not lost money — it’s effectively development spending that informs future business.
“The progress made here will benefit ALL of our future customers,” Hopkins said. “CFPP unequivocally has been a tremendous success for NuScale.”
NuScale’s 50 MW power module in January 2020 became the first SMR design certified by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Its 77 MWe module has been accepted for NRC review.
In its 8-K filing, the company said Standard Power has chosen the NuScale-ENTRA1 partnership to develop two SMR-powered facilities with a total of nearly 2 GWe. It said its RoPower project in Romania is advancing to the next phase of development with a key regulatory approval. And it said production of power module forgings continues.
NuScale reported a net loss of $58.3 million on revenue of $7 million in the third quarter of 2023, up from $49.6 million and $3.2 million in the same quarter of 2022.
