US, Japan & South Korea Establish Major Plan To Accelerate Global Small Modular Reactor Deployment And Expand Nuclear Power In Europe

Washington DC: The United States, Japan and the Republic of Korea have established an Implementation Plan to support the deployment of Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) in other countries, the US Department of State said in a media note on Wednesday (local time).

The announcement was made on the margins of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, following the Trilateral Ministerial meeting between the three countries.

According to the US Department of State, the Implementation Plan supports the Memorandum of Cooperation (MOC) on SMR Deployments in Other Countries, which was signed by the three participants in Ankara on July 7 this year.

"The MOC and Implementation Plan support our mutual security interests by setting out an ambitious agenda in pursuit of SMR fleet deployment to meet growing global energy demands," the department said.

The US Department of State also said that Deputy Secretary Christopher Landau attended and welcomed the signing of an industry initiative establishing a framework for cooperation between GE Vernova (United States), Hitachi (Japan), Samsung C&T (Republic of Korea), and SGE (Poland) to advance the deployment of the BWRX-300 SMR across Europe.

The department said the international consortium brings together industry leaders from the US, Japan, South Korea and Poland with the aim of delivering reliable baseload nuclear power to millions of people across Europe and promoting over USD 150 billion in reactor investments in the coming years.

"This important industry milestone demonstrates the impact of leveraging our nations’ complementary industrial strengths to accelerate the deployment of reactors that meet the highest standards of nuclear safety, security, and nonproliferation," the media note said.

The initiative aligns with the broader objectives reflected in the trilateral MOC signed earlier this year by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio with his Japanese and South Korean counterparts, the department added. 

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