NuScale Power is cutting personnel by nearly 30%, the company announced on Monday, a major blow to one of the few small modular reactor companies as the industry struggles to get off the ground.
The company said it would cut 154 full-time employees, or 28% of staff. NuScale stated it would be transitioning its focus from research and development to commercialization and estimated the move would save $50 million to $60 million a year.
“Today, commercialization of our SMR technology is our key objective, which includes near-term deployment and manufacturing,” John Hopkins, the company’s president and chief executive officer, said in a press statement. “We continue to invest in our future, including work needed for the near-term deployment of our SMR power plants powered by our 77 MWe NuScale Power Modules.”
NuScale’s personnel cuts are the latest setback the company has experienced as it works to build out its approved projects. In November, the company scrapped its plans to build its first commercial SMR project in Idaho, which was expected to generate a total of 462 megawatts. However, cost overshoots and delays from the project’s original operation date had scared utilities from upholding an original agreement to purchase power from the project once it was finished.
The company is the only SMR developer with a design approved by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Supporters of advanced nuclear reactors argue the technology is able to provide carbon-free energy that can be available at any time — a more efficient alternative to sources such as wind and solar, which can only be run at certain periods of the day. Furthermore, experts consider SMRs to be smaller and safer than more traditional sources of nuclear energy.
The Biden administration has invested billions into the advanced nuclear industry, banking on the technology as a viable strategy to reduce carbon emissions while supplying energy at a mass scale.
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NuScale has four other projects proposed in the United States, along with several other prospective deals in countries worldwide.
However, it’s not the only nuclear startup having problems with deployment. Last fall, X-energy announced it would lay off 150 employees and terminated a $2 billion deal to go public.
In September, the Northern Journal reported that California-based company Oklo had appeared to lose a more than $100 million contract to build reactors in Alaska. In August, the company was tentatively chosen as the contractor to build out the reactors with an expected online date of 2027, but the military revoked the intent to award Oklo the contract in September.
