Doosan Enerbility Wins NuScale Order for First SMR Reactor Vessel Module
Doosan Enerbility will make the first upper reactor pressure vessel module for NuScale's SMR project, widening their tie to commercial equipment; value, module count and schedule are undisclosed.
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Key facts: one URPV module in the new contract and six upper RPVs in the 2022 material order. Contract value and schedule were not disclosed.
Illustration (AI-generated)
Doosan Enerbility said on Oct. 29 that it has won a contract from NuScale Power to produce the first upper reactor pressure vessel (URPV) module for NuScale's small modular reactor (SMR) project, according to Yonhap.
The Korean equipment maker said the deal expands the two companies' cooperation into commercial production of reactor equipment, as reported by Yonhap and The Korea Herald. Doosan President Kim Jong-doo and NuScale Chief Operating Officer Carl Fisher signed the deal at Doosan's headquarters in Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province, Yonhap said. The URPV is the upper section of the reactor pressure vessel, which holds coolant at high temperature and high pressure.
Neither company has disclosed the contract value, the number of modules or a delivery schedule in the reports published so far. NuScale's press-release page showed no announcement of the order as of Oct. 29, and the reports do not name the plant the module is meant for.
Why it matters for SMR supply
The order is the point where an SMR supply chain moves from reserved materials to finished hardware. For data-center developers weighing SMRs as firm power, forged vessel components are among the items that set how soon a first module can ship, so a placed manufacturing order is a firmer signal than a framework agreement. It does not, on its own, show that any project has a buyer, a licence or a financing package.
From forgings to finished equipment
The new contract builds on earlier steps. NuScale and Doosan began work on the upper RPV forging dies in April 2022, according to NuScale. NuScale said on March 9, 2023, that it had placed its first long-lead material order with Doosan at the end of 2022, covering heavy forgings, steam generator tubes and weld material for six upper RPVs. World Nuclear News reported on May 5, 2023, that Doosan had begun forging for the first module of a six-module VOYGR plant then planned for the Carbon Free Power Project in Idaho.
The new URPV module contract follows forging-die work, a long-lead material order and the start of forging.
Illustration (AI-generated)
Doosan has been a NuScale partner since 2019, when the two signed a business collaboration agreement, and World Nuclear News reported that Doosan and Korean financial investors put nearly USD 104 million of equity into NuScale. In May 2024, the Korea Economic Daily's English service, KED Global, cited unnamed industry sources saying Doosan would supply reactors and steam generators as part of a possible 24-module deal with Standard Power; Doosan said at the time it did not know what was being discussed. That report was never confirmed, and it should not be read as this contract.
Yonhap also noted that NuScale's design was the first SMR design in the United States to receive approval from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. For other SMR supply-chain and policy moves, see Voltgrid's coverage of a Hungarian bill on a US nuclear pact centred on SMRs and the SGE and OPG Origin Nuclear letter of intent for UK BWRX-300 units.
What is not confirmed yet
The contract value, the module count, the delivery date and the destination project are all unstated. Yonhap's description of the order as for "NuScale's SMR project" does not tie it to ENTRA1 Energy's non-binding program with the Tennessee Valley Authority, and Voltgrid has not treated the two as linked. The next thing to watch is whether NuScale or Doosan files or publishes the terms, which would show whether this is a single-module order or the start of a series.
