Reporting a net loss in the first quarter of 2024, advanced nuclear developer NuScale Power Corp. on May 9 touted its small modular reactor technology as a critical tool to meet growing US electricity demand.
"The criticality of NuScale's near-term deployable [small modular reactor (SMR)] technology has never been greater than amidst today's rapidly expanding power demand landscape," company President and CEO John Hopkins said on an earnings call.
Growing energy use and demand driven primarily by large-scale customers such as datacenters, expanded US manufacturing and the impending closure of the country's coal-fired capacity has made the domestic grid vulnerable, Hopkins said, and NuScale's SMR design could be an answer.
"Our solution is scalable, reliable, near-term deployable and aligns with ... clean energy commitments," Hopkins said. "We are in advanced discussions with a number of these prospective customers and several are considering commercial operation days before the end of this decade."
NuScale is particularly well positioned to meet the needs of large-scale customers such as datacenters, management said, since it is further along in development than SMR peers still working toward US Nuclear Regulatory Commission approval. NuScale's VOYGR SMR design became the first certified by the nuclear regulator in January 2023.
The company's first-quarter net loss of $48.1 million compared to a net loss of $35.6 million in the first quarter of 2023. First-quarter 2024 results included a one-time $3.2 million charge associated with NuScale's transition from a research and development company to commercial operations, executives said, as well as a $9 million non-cash adjustment to the fair value of its warrants from an increase in share price. The company also reported revenue of $1.4 million in the first quarter of 2024 compared to revenue of $5.5 million for the same period of 2023.
Management anticipates NuScale's quarterly cash burn rate will likely be around $20 million.
A joint project between NuScale and Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems to build the country's first SMR power plant was scrapped altogether in November 2023 after proponents failed to identify enough buyers to take a share of the output from the planned 462-MW project. The first unit of the now-canceled UAMPS Carbon Free Power Project was set to enter service in Idaho Falls, Idaho, by 2029.
That left NuScale with one other major contract, with Standard Power, which describes itself as providing "Digital Infrastructure as a Service" to data processing companies like blockchain miners and datacenter developers. NuScale's contract with Standard Power is valued at about $37 billion and plans include two proposed plants in Ohio and Pennsylvania with a combined 1,848 MWe of capacity.
Since then, NuScale has shared updates on projects in development in South Korea and Romania, but did not share substantive updates on its US projects other than to say it is in discussions with potential customers and the Standard Power deal remains ongoing.
"These are large and complicated financial transactions that just take time to finalize," Hopkins said in his update on Standard Power. "Standard Power is not going away."
Following the cancelation of its Idaho project, NuScale challenged claims it was facing bankruptcy, though it now faces several class-action lawsuits claiming it misled shareholders about the UAMPS project. The company has repeatedly referred to claims in the lawsuit as "false and misleading," and Hopkins has called speculation about the NuScale technology's commercial feasibility "irresponsible."
