By Nicholas Earl
A potential nuclear power player with ambitions for the UK market is working to raise up to €1bn (£870m) in an upcoming equity raise.
Newcleo is looking to raise the funds to support the developments of its lead-cooled fast nuclear reactors (LFRs) and its plants to manufacture fuel from nuclear waste.
The company is exploring nuclear sites in France and the UK to develop a plant to manufacture fuel exclusively from existing nuclear waste.
It is aiming to deploy 30 megawatt LFRs in France by the end of the decade, rapidly followed by a 200MWe commercial unit in the UK only two years later.
Launched in September 2021, the company has already completed two capital raises, raising a total of €400m buoyed by international investors.
The LFRs will be constructed similarly to small modular reactors (SMRs), with manufacturing and construction standardised in factories, rather than built on site such as with conventional nuclear power plants.
The funds will aid Newcleo’s strategic expansion into manufacturing nuclear fuel for its next-generation reactors made from existing waste produced by traditional reactors.
This will include the establishment of a first mixed plutonium-uranium oxides (MOX) production plant in France, with another plant to follow later in the UK.
MOX, a nuclear fuel already approved for use in fast nuclear reactors in France, consists of depleted uranium (a by-product of the enrichment process of traditional reactors, for which there is currently no use but significant disposal costs) and plutonium.
Newcleo argues MOX will decrease the environmental and financial cost of disposing of long-living radioactive waste, reduce proliferation risk and completely avoid the need to mine for new nuclear fuel.
Public funding applications for its LFRs have been submitted in France, alongside initial steps towards regulatory approvals, such as the UK Generic Design Assessment (GDA) entry application.
In Italy, it has struck strategic partnerships with power companies ENEA and ENEL, which could invest in its first nuclear plant.
Stefano Buono, Newcleo chairman and chief executive, said: “Between now and 2050, electricity demand is set to triple, driven by economic growth and electrification. This is a huge increase, and against a backdrop of necessary decarbonisation.
“At Newcleo, we are building a new competitive standard in nuclear energy to meet this rising demand for electricity in a sustainable manner. Our technology can address decarbonisation of the energy systems and security of energy supply, two of the biggest challenges facing countries around the world.”
Commenting on the Newcleo’s fundaraiser, Mustafa Latif-Aramesh, legal director of BDB Pitmans, urged the UK to ramp up its SMR plans in time to meet demand.
He said: “In Europe, countries are reducing environmental assessment requirements, whilst the federal government is backing nuclear with hard cash in the US. Meanwhile in the UK, delays on the winners of the Future Nuclear Enabling Fund, along with developers having to wait until 2025 at the earliest for the revised National Policy Statement for New Nuclear, are likely to cause concern. The consultation on site selection also risks diverting resources to a further process and delaying delivery.”
He also criticised the government’s decision to pivot towards an SMR competition rather than committing funding for new projects immediately, arguing that “speed is the name of the game”.
Rolls-Royce has proposed its own SMR designs based on scale-down versions of light-water reactors, which has secured £210m in government funding but still awaits a final investment decision.
The government has been approached for comment.
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