World Nuclear News
Summary
The agreement follows a letter of intent signed in October between Steady Energy and Helsinki's energy company Helen for the construction of up to 10 SMRs for district heating. According to that agreement, Helen and Steady Energy would launch a planning process with the objective of concluding a pre-investment agreement concerning nuclear heat production within six months.
"We now have an option to build a total of 15 reactors, which would correspond to approximately EUR1 billion (USD1.1 billion) in turnover," said Steady Energy CEO Tommi Nyman. "The signed letters of intent reflect the strong desire within the energy industry to develop new affordable and low-emission energy technologies for producing district heat."
In Finland, more than half of the energy used for heating comes from district heating, which is mostly produced with fossil fuels, peat and biomass, Steady Energy noted. Utilities are seeking ways to swiftly transit away from combustion-based heat production to new and innovative low emission alternatives such as SMRs.
"The advantages of SMRs include consistent and reliable production, emission-free operation, reasonable cost and minimal use of natural resources," Nyman said. "Additionally, SMRs, as the name suggests, are much smaller in size than traditional nuclear power plants. For example, the newly completed Olkiluoto 3 reactor has a thermal power capacity almost 100 times greater than the 50 MWt unit developed by Steady Energy. SMRs are therefore faster to construct and the facilities can be safely placed underground within the bedrock."
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