Tractebel, EDF And NUWARD Signed A New Agreement On SMR Project

Tractebel, EDF (both ENS Corporate Members) and NUWARD signed a Framework Cooperation Agreement to strengthen and extend their collaboration in the development of the NUWARD Small Modular Reactor (SMR) technology.

With this long-term agreement to support the project, Tractebel will allocate more resources to NUWARD SMR in all the fields of nuclear engineering.

Around 50 engineers from Tractebel are currently working on the NUWARD SMR project under a 2022 agreement, but this number is expected to double in the coming years.

Indeed, the recent creation of the subsidiary NUWARD and the start of the basic design phase of the SMR project resulted in a significant increase in the human resources required for the project.

Read the Tractebel Press Release.

NUWARD design will consist of a 340 MWe pressurized water SMR plant with two reactors of 170 MWe each. It will be based on first-class French nuclear-pressurized water reactor technologies.

It will be a multi-purpose plant, with a design that can be adapted for several uses including green hydrogen production, desalinisation and heat cogeneration.

This is another key attraction of SMRs – their potential uses beyond the production of electricity for established grids. 

The International Energy Agency has noted that SMRs could help provide flexibility in countries with large electricity grids or be used in countries or regions with small electricity grids that would not be appropriate for large baseload nuclear power plants.