NuScale Power has won design approval from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for its upgraded 77 megawatt-electric (MWe) small modular reactor (SMR). This marks a key moment for the U.S. nuclear energy industry.
NuScale first submitted its Design Certification Application (DCA) for its 160 MWt (50 MWe) small modular reactor (SMR) design in March 2017. The NRC later approved, making it the first SMR design to earn NRC certification. Thus, this second NRC-approved SMR design builds on NuScale’s previous 50 MWe model.
This announcement boosts the push for reliable, low-carbon energy as demand for cleaner electricity grows. NuScale, now the only SMR firm with NRC-approved designs, is set to play a major role in the energy transition.
Carrie Fosaaen, Vice President of Regulatory Affairs and Services, noted,
“NuScale is proud to have worked with the NRC and to have met its stringent regulatory application process as we continue to lead the way in the SMR industry with our second design approval. “With today’s announcement, NuScale continues to advance with ENTRA1 Energy in the commercialization of our SMR technology inside ENTRA1 Energy Plants while remaining steadfast in our mission to improve the quality of life for people around the world through safe, clean energy.”
NuScale’s SMR: Designed for a Low-Carbon Future
NuScale Power Corporation was founded in 2007. It developed the first and only SMR to receive NRC design certification. Its special pressurized water reactor design focuses on flexibility, safety, and carbon-free energy.
Each NuScale module can be combined into multi-module plants producing up to 924 MWe with 12 units. This technology supports various applications, including:
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Electricity generation
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District heating
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Desalination
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Hydrogen production
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Process heat for industry
As countries shift to cleaner energy, NuScale’s compact, scalable design meets the needs of both emerging economies and developed nations, replacing old infrastructure.
John Hopkins, NuScale President and Chief Executive Officer, said,
“We are thrilled that the NRC has approved our second SDA application, this time for our 77 MWe design. This marks a historic moment not only for NuScale, but the entire industry, as NuScale and ENTRA1 move closer to meeting the demands of clean energy users. For more than a decade, our team has proudly worked alongside the NRC to achieve the successful approval of our designs. The NRC is domestically and internationally recognized and respected for its rigorous safety standards, and this approval is a crucial step toward meeting our goal of providing clean, reliable, and, most importantly, safe energy to off-takers and consumers.”
Uprated SMR Design Boosts Capacity and Economics
The press release reveals that NuScale applied for the uprated 250 MW thermal (77 MWe) reactor on January 1, 2023. The NRC’s early approval, expected later in 2025, highlights the strong safety and regulatory performance of NuScale’s advanced reactor design.
Each NuScale Power Module™ in this new setup generates 77 MWe. Up to six modules can work together in a single plant, totaling 462 MWe—about a third of a conventional reactor’s size. The upgraded design keeps all the passive safety features from the 50 MWe version while enhancing energy output and cost-effectiveness.
NuScale’s reactors use natural forces like convection and gravity to cool the core without
Needing extra power, water, or human help, these features boost safety. They make the technology perfect for remote or decentralized energy markets.
Study details of technical specification here: NPM-technical-specifications.pdf
ENTRA1 Energy: Commercializing America’s First SMR Fleet
The NRC’s approval lets ENTRA1 Energy, NuScale’s global partner, market these upgraded SMRs. ENTRA1 has exclusive rights to deploy and run NuScale’s nuclear technology worldwide. They plan to build “ENTRA1 Energy Plants™” with NuScale’s reactors to meet the rising demand for carbon-free, reliable energy.
ENTRA1 provides higher output per module. This means it can offer flexible power solutions for utilities, data centers, and hydrogen production hubs. The company plans to serve both the U.S. and international markets. Its scalable model delivers zero-emission electricity.
The company handles the entire project cycle—development, investment, deployment, and operations—offering a complete solution for next-generation nuclear energy.
What’s Next: Global Deployment and Engineering Work in Romania
With NRC certification, NuScale’s upgraded SMR design can be used in future construction and operation permit applications. This opens new project opportunities in the U.S. and abroad, especially in areas needing reliable, emissions-free power.
NuScale is already planning engineering work for Romania’s RoPower project, a 462-MWe power plant that will feature six NuScale modules. Production of 12 modules is currently underway in South Korea with Doosan, a key partner in building the production pipeline.
- To support this next development phase, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has invested over $575 million in NuScale’s design and licensing efforts.
This support shows how SMRs are seen as vital to U.S. energy security and climate goals.
Electricity generation for data centres by fuel in the United States, Base Case, 2020-2035
A Nuclear Resurgence in the U.S. Backed by Policy and Private Investment
SMRs are gaining traction as the U.S. seeks to replace old coal plants and meet net-zero targets. SMRs, like NuScale’s, can be set up faster than large nuclear plants. They also cost less and are safer. Their modular, factory-built design contributes to these advantages.
NuScale is the only SMR company that has NRC-certified designs. This gives it a regulatory edge and strong credibility in a field where safety matters. The NRC’s approval shows investors and policymakers that SMR technology is viable.
The Biden administration and earlier policies under Trump have supported SMRs. These small modular reactors are vital for the country’s nuclear revival. They offer a stable, emissions-free option to fossil fuels. This is important as grid reliability and decarbonization are now top priorities.
SMRs Power Up the Path to Net Zero
The NRC’s approval of NuScale’s 77 MWe SMR is a milestone for the global nuclear industry. With solid support from the U.S. government, NuScale is ready to lead the SMR market. Strategic partnerships like ENTRA1 and interest from projects like RoPower boost its position.
Utilities and countries want reliable, dispatchable, and carbon-free power. SMRs provide a strong solution. They support renewable energy, enhance energy security, and are key to decarbonizing global energy systems.
NuScale’s recent success points to a bright future for advanced nuclear energy, where innovation, safety, and sustainability unite to power the next generation.
The post NuScale Secures NRC Approval for 77 MWe SMR Design, Advancing U.S. Nuclear Innovation appeared first on Carbon Credits.
Most businesses that decide to act on their net-zero targets reach the same point of friction. Buying carbon credits has meant tracking down brokers, sitting through sales calls, and requesting a quote just to learn a price, sometimes with limited proof of what you are buying.
The earnings calls that quietly reframed climate from sustainability question to operating risk.
Three earnings calls in the last 18 months tell the story without any help from a press release.
Hershey, May 2024: cocoa price exposure compresses margin, and the company attributes part of the cost shock to West African weather. Olam, July 2024: coffee climate exposure quantified in the annual report. JBS, January 2025: supply chain climate disclosures expanded materially in response to investor pressure and regulatory expectation. None of these companies issued the announcement as climate news. They issued it as financial news. The climate-linked supply chain risk did not arrive with a sustainability framing; it arrived as a P&L line.
You are probably reading this article because you suspect the same thing is happening to your business. This piece walks through what is showing up on which earnings calls, how procurement and finance leaders are quantifying the exposure, and what serious corporates are doing about it before the regulator asks.
Where climate risk has already appeared in earnings
The pattern is consistent across resource-intensive sectors. A weather event compresses supply, the price spikes, the cost flows through the income statement, and the analyst on the call asks whether the event is anomalous or structural. Increasingly, the honest answer is the second one.
Cocoa is the cleanest example. The 2023 to 2024 West African harvest fell sharply on the back of erratic rainfall and disease. Cocoa futures more than tripled. Companies with concentrated West African sourcing absorbed the cost; companies with diversified sourcing absorbed less. The exposure was not climate as ESG topic. It was climate as cost of goods.
Coffee follows the same pattern. Brazilian and Vietnamese harvests have moved on weather more sharply across the last several seasons. Roasters with long-tenor supplier relationships and origin diversification have managed the volatility; roasters with spot-market exposure have not. Wheat, sugar, palm oil, beef: the same dynamic in different commodities, a pattern the IPCC AR6 Working Group II report projects will intensify across agricultural systems through mid-century.
What this means: climate risk is no longer a footnote in the 10-K. It is a line item the CFO has to explain on the call.
The three commodity exposures that hit margin first
For most companies with material Scope 3 exposure, three exposures dominate the near-term P&L risk.
- Concentrated single-origin sourcing in a climate-vulnerable region. If your tier-one supply for any material commodity sits in one geography, you have a concentration risk that climate amplifies. Diversification across origins is the obvious hedge, but it takes years to build and requires relationships you cannot acquire by tender.
- Supplier financial fragility under climate stress. Smallholder farmers, who supply a large share of the global cocoa, coffee, and palm oil market, do not carry the balance sheets to absorb yield shocks. When yields collapse, they exit. When they exit, your supply base shrinks, and the surviving suppliers raise prices. The risk is structural, not cyclical.
- Logistics and storage exposure to extreme weather. Hurricane disruptions to Gulf shipping, drought-driven Panama Canal restrictions, flooding in European inland waterways: each of these has moved input costs in the last three years, a pattern documented in Munich Re’s natural catastrophe data. The exposure shows up as a one-quarter event in the financial press but accumulates over time on the cost line.
TCFD and ISSB disclosure changes
The disclosure architecture has now caught up with the risk. The Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures, whose recommendations are now embedded in the ISSB’s IFRS S2 climate standard, requires companies to disclose climate-related risks across physical and transition categories, with quantification where possible.
For physical risk specifically (the climate-linked supply chain risk you are reading about), the disclosure must address both acute exposures (extreme weather events) and chronic exposures (gradual changes in temperature, precipitation, and growing seasons). The disclosure must address the time horizon over which the risk is material, the parts of the value chain exposed, and the financial impact under different scenarios.
The CSRD imposes similar requirements under European law, with double materiality (both financial and impact materiality) embedded in the assessment. The practical effect: your auditors and your investor relations team now need a defensible answer to the climate-linked supply chain risk question, and the answer needs to be quantified.
What procurement and finance can do now
Three actions matter near-term.
Map your exposure. Most companies do not have a clear view of which tier-one and tier-two suppliers sit in which climate-vulnerable geographies. Without the map, you cannot quantify the risk, and without the quantification, you cannot disclose it credibly. The map is the foundation, and World Resources Institute climate risk research provides useful public tooling to start.
Diversify and deepen, in that order. Diversification across origins reduces concentration risk, but the deeper move is to invest in the resilience of the suppliers you already have. Regenerative practices, agroforestry, soil health interventions: these reduce yield volatility under climate stress and protect your input cost trajectory.
Embed the climate spend inside procurement, not outside it. Treating climate risk as a sustainability cost line subordinates it to the ESG budget. Treating it as a procurement and resilience investment puts it in the budget that matters, which is the cost-of-goods budget that the CFO defends quarterly.
Nature-based supply chain investments are the asset class designed for exactly this purpose. They sit inside the value chain, they reduce climate-linked supply risk, they generate verifiable Scope 3 reductions, and they produce the documentation an auditor and a regulator can both test.
If you are quantifying climate-linked supply chain risk in advance of the next earnings cycle or the next disclosure period, the carbon and sustainability experts at Carbon Credit Capital can help you map your exposure and structure a Dual-Value Model response that addresses reduction, resilience, and disclosure-readiness in a single program. Schedule a consultation.
More and more small and medium-sized businesses are hearing the same question from their larger customers: What is your carbon footprint? That question now travels down entire supply chains, and it arrives next to tender requirements, certification criteria, and rising customer expectations.
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