On Friday 9 February, the European Commission launched a call for applications for the new Industrial Alliance on Small Modular Reactors (SMRs), aimed at accelerating the deployment of the first SMRs in the EU by the early 2030s.
This alliance was announced last November by the European Commissioner for Energy, Kadri Simson (see EUROPE 13287/12), and is also in line with the communication recently published by the European Commission on the emissions reduction target for 2040 (see EUROPE 13344/1).
The latter stresses that zero-emission and low-carbon energy solutions, such as nuclear power - including SMRs - renewable energies, energy efficiency and carbon offsets are needed to decarbonise Europe’s energy system.
“As we are facing a race to generate sufficient decarbonised electricity to achieve our climate ambition, nuclear energy, and Small Modular Reactors in particular, has a central role to play”, said Commissioner for the Internal Market Thierry Breton.
For Kadri Simson, there are numerous advantages to SMRs: “They can contribute on our decarbonisation pathway to complement renewables, and provide baseload energy production for deep electrification, reliable source of heat for industries and urban districts, as well as for low-carbon hydrogen production”.
Stakeholders targeted by the call for applications include vendors, utilities, specialist nuclear companies, financial institutions, research bodies, training centres and civil society organisations.
This first call is open until 12 April and will be followed by subsequent calls. The Commission will also be organising a dissemination event on 21 March in Brussels to present the scope, objectives and activities of the alliance.
A strategic action plan will be drawn up by the first quarter of 2025.
To see the call for applications: https://aeur.eu/f/ass
To see the alliance’s mandate: https://aeur.eu/f/ast (Original version in French by Pauline Denys)