NuScale Power Is Closing In on a Deal That Could Transform the Small Modular Reactor Industry - The Globe and Mail

NuScale Power is in advanced talks on a deal that the company says could accelerate deployment of its small modular reactor technology. The article does not specify the deal's terms, timeline, or which counterparties are involved, only that closure is near. NuScale has been developing 77-megawatt modular units designed for deployment at existing industrial and grid sites. The company has faced cost and schedule delays on its flagship project in Idaho, which was originally planned as a twelve-unit deployment but was scaled back to six units after cost estimates rose.

Where this fits

NuScale's progress matters because small modular reactors are the only near-term firm power alternative to gas that Australia has legally available. The SMR pathway directly challenges the renewables-plus-gas framing now embedded in grid plans. Every credible deal in this space is evidence that firm, low-emission, low-material-intensity nuclear generation is technically and commercially feasible at smaller scale than traditional plants. That capability exists; it is being deployed offshore; it remains illegal in Australia by statute.

What it means

Australia is building a renewables grid that will depend on gas for firming and on China for panels, batteries, inverters and processed minerals. A working SMR supply chain, even one not available domestically, shifts the strategic calculus: it proves the firm-power problem has a solution that does not require weather-dependent volatility, does not lock in gas dependency, and does not extend reliance on a single authoritarian supply chain. The article itself offers no data on cost or timeline. But the deal's existence is the point: overseas, the firm power alternative is being built. Australia has banned it by law.