PRZOOM - /newswire/ - Brussels, Belgium, 2020/01/28 - Strong cooperation for nuclear innovation - Fermi.ee / Fortum.com / Tractebel-Engie.com.

Fermi Energia signed today MOUs with the Finnish energy company Fortum and the Belgian engineering company Tractebel to start enhanced cooperation on studying Small Modular Reactor (SMR) deployment project in Estonian developed by Fermi Energia. Parties focus in researching licencing model suitable for SMRs and preliminary siting study for light-water SMR deployment.

Parties agree to share results of the studies mutually. „Highest value of the MOU is in starting mutual learning through practical working with current nuclear energy producers. There is high need to innovate many elements of nuclear energy deployment to be market competitive with other investments and by finding best solutions together, we can be sure that there is mutual understanding for later stages of the deployment. With Baltic countries desynchronisation from Russian grid system and loss of imports from Russia by end of 2025 approaching fast, nuclear energy in form of SMRs becomes important element in achieving reliable noncarbon power supplies for Baltic countries,“ said CEO and co-founder of Fermi Energia Kalev Kallemets.

With these agreements, Fermi Energia is becoming leading EU SMR deployment project. „These MOUs establish cooperation to support Estonia with developed know-how and capacity on SMR deployment project so that nuclear energy can have strong contribution into achieving EU carbon neutrality in 2050”, said Denis Dumont, Tractebel General Manager Business Line Nuclear.

"Fortum has carried out R&D activities on SMRs for several years. SMRs are a potential future option to support decarbonization of electricity and heat production. We are happy to cooperate with Fermi on this highly interesting topic" said Petra Lundström, Vice President, Nuclear Services at Fortum.

Fermi Energia is in discussion on similar MOUs with two other European utilities on in depth analysis of spent fuel management and on SMR construction timing and planning. All studies will be completed by end of 2020 and made public early 2021.

On 28th of January 2020 Fortum and Tractebel will present at Fermi Energia annual conference in Tallinn (fermi.ee/conference) results of their studies on respectively “Milestones of SMR deployment program” and “Comparative analysis of licenced SMRs”.

Fortum (fortum.com) is majority Finnish state owned energy company with 2819MW of nuclear energy power generation capacity and total of 74,6TWh power generation. Tractebel (tractebel-engie.com) is one of the world’s leading engineering and advisory companies delivering integrated services with a laser focus on unlocking opportunities for greater sustainability and a zero-carbon future.

Fermi Energia (fermi.ee) is privately owned Small Modular Reactor deployment company seeking to achieve first deployment of SMR in European Union to achieve carbon neutrality and security of power supply in Estonia and the Baltics.

Agency / Source: Tractebel

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