NuScale, a company that has developed an advanced and innovative form of light water reactor that provides clean, reliable power through a series of smaller modular cores, announced that it has agreed to merge with Spring Valley Acquisition Corp., a special acquisition company in a SPAC deal that is expected to close in the first half of 2022.
NuScale, while generally not considered a “Gen IV” design (since it still utilizes the traditional LWR design), nevertheless made history when it received NRC certification of the design’s underlying safety features back in September 2020 for its unique 60 MW reactor form factor design, becoming the first Small Modular Reactor design to do so. In partnership with the DOE, NuScale has planned to deploy its first reactor complex on behalf of the Utah Associated Municipal Power System (UAMPS), to showcase the new technology. Nevertheless, despite receiving its final safety evaluation from the NRC, NuScale will still need to submit a Combined License Application to the NRC in order to start building its reactor in the U.S.
Upon completion of this SPAC transaction, the combined entity will be valued at almost $2 billion and will leave NuScale with over $400 million in cash proceeds, in part from a further PIPE fundraise. Fluor Corporation, currently a majority owner of NuScale, will hold about 60% of the company upon completion.
NuScale has been able to tout their NRC safety approval to begin lining up SMR customers around the world. According to a Bloomberg article, the company is fielding interest for 19 deals in 11 countries and may potentially complete a development in Romania before evening completing their first in the U.S. Given that NuScale can expect to see revenue even prior to when a new plant is complete, the company anticipates seeing meaningful revenue as early as 2024.
For more on NuScale’s plans, see Bloomberg’s Small Nuclear Developer NuScale to Go Public Through SPAC Deal, by Will Wade, December 14, 2021 and MarketWatch’s Fluor’s NuScale Power to Combine with SPAC Spring Valley, by Collin Kellaher, Dec. 14, 2021