NuScale

NuScale Power was founded in 2007 in Corvallis, Oregon by José Reyes and Brian Gutherman, building on reactor safety research Reyes had conducted as a professor at Oregon State University. The company’s core innovation grew directly from Reyes’ work on natural-circulation reactor cooling — a phenomenon in which water naturally convects through a reactor without requiring pumps. NuScale is headquartered in Portland, Oregon, and trades on the NYSE under the ticker SMR. Fluor Corporation made the first major investment in NuScale in 2011 and has been a strategic and financial partner throughout its development; the DOE has invested approximately $600 million through cost-sharing agreements.

NuScale’s NuScale Power Module (NPM) is a pressurized light-water reactor that generates 77 MWe per module. It is designed to operate via natural circulation — eliminating all coolant pumps — and is entirely submerged in a below-grade pool of water that provides passive decay heat removal indefinitely in any accident scenario without operator intervention or external power. The reactor module itself is compact enough to be factory-manufactured and shipped by truck, rail, or barge to the site and lowered into the pool. Multiple modules can be co-located at a single plant, with the standard reference plant using 12 modules for a combined capacity of approximately 924 MWe. NuScale’s reactor is the only Gen III+ small modular reactor to have received NRC design certification — approved in July 2022 — representing a landmark first in nuclear history.

NuScale’s flagship commercial project — the Carbon Free Power Project (CFPP) with Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems (UAMPS) near Idaho Falls — was cancelled in November 2023 after cost estimates rose significantly and insufficient customer commitments materialized. The cancellation was a major setback. Since then, NuScale has refocused on international markets, pursuing licensing and deployment opportunities in Romania (with the Cernavoda operator), South Korea, Poland, the Philippines, and multiple other countries.

NuScale’s investors include Fluor Corporation (strategic partner and early majority shareholder), Doosan Enerbility (South Korea), and Samsung C&T. As of 2025, the company has approximately $450 million in investor capital and is working to reduce costs per module through design improvements and supply chain development. NuScale remains the furthest-advanced SMR developer in terms of US regulatory approvals, and its design certification continues to be its key commercial asset.