By Forrest Crellin
PARIS (Reuters) -Italian small-modular-reactor startup Newcleo is considering developing 20 reactors worth an estimated 16 billion euros ($19 billion) in the United States, not in Britain as previously planned, as recent policy changes opened opportunity for investment, CEO Stefano Buono told Reuters.
U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order in May to boost domestic nuclear production by cutting down regulations and fast-tracking new licenses.
Hyperscalers, which are large data centre developers, like Microsoft, are meanwhile investing in nuclear power to provide stable supply to the energy-intensive centres.
That contrasts with slow development in Europe, where approvals can sometimes take two to three times longer than in the U.S.
“There are a lot of tools that are encouraging investment into the U.S. now,” said Buono.
Newcleo is also competing in a tender to develop fuel production in the U.S.
The company, which recently moved its headquarters to France from Britain, is considering shifting its deployment programme of 20 reactors from Britain to the U.S. and estimates that each reactor will have an investment cost of around 800 million euros, Buono said.
However, no final investment decision has been made and there are plenty of steps left before one is taken, a spokesperson for the company said.
($1 = 0.8575 euros)
(Reporting by Forrest Crellin; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
