[E-Daily Reporter LEE DAWON ] SAMSUNG C&T CORPORATION will take on the joint engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) for a 1.2 GW small modular reactor (SMR) project it is pursuing in Sweden. With SMR projects totaling 12.2 GW currently underway across five European countries, the Swedish project has progressed to the strategic partner selection stage, and the company’s push into the European SMR market is expected to gain momentum.

SAMSUNG C&T CORPORATION(028260) The Construction Division announced on the 3rd that it had signed a Joint Development Agreement (JDA) in Stockholm, Sweden, with GE Vernova Hitachi Nuclear Energy (GVH) for a new nuclear power plant project led by the Swedish nuclear power company Studsvik AB.

This project involves the construction of four units of the “BWRX-300,” a 300 MW-class SMR developed by GVH, for a total capacity of 1.2 GW. The reactors will be built on a site owned by Studsvik that has already received a license to operate nuclear facilities, with the goal of beginning commercial operation in the mid-2030s.

SAMSUNG C&T CORPORATION and GVH were ultimately selected as strategic partners following a competitive selection process involving three groups that began in May of last year. Studsvik will be responsible for the overall project development, including licensing, environmental impact assessments, and government consultations, while SAMSUNG C&T CORPORATION and GVH, as joint EPC partners, will participate in the entire process from the initial stages of the project through to its actual execution.

Including this project, SAMSUNG C&T CORPORATION is developing SMRs as a medium- to long-term revenue source. The company is currently pursuing SMR projects totaling 12.2 GW, primarily in five European countries. Of these, projects being prepared with GVH in Sweden, Estonia, and Poland account for 11.7 GW. The SMR project in Romania, being pursued with NuScale, has a capacity of 0.5 GW and aims to break ground in 2028 following the signing of the EPC contract and financial close.

In particular, SAMSUNG C&T CORPORATION is pursuing a strategy in the nuclear power business that goes beyond simple construction; the company participates from the initial design (FEED) stage to preemptively assess project risks and secure leadership in the EPC process. For this project in Sweden, the company will also participate as a joint EPC partner from the initial stages.

The BWRX-300, which will be used in this project, is an SMR developed based on existing boiling water reactor (BWR) technology. Construction of the first commercial SMR in the Western world is underway in Darlington, Ontario, Canada, and an application for an operating license was submitted last April.

The Swedish government is also pursuing the expansion of new nuclear power plants. It plans to secure 2.5 GW of new nuclear capacity by 2035 through SMRs and large-scale nuclear power plants, and to expand this to 10 GW by 2045.

Studsvik, the project lead, is a nuclear technology specialist established in 1947 as the central agency of Sweden’s national nuclear program. The company operates across the entire nuclear industry lifecycle, from the development of new nuclear power plants to the servicing and operational support of existing plants, as well as decommissioning.

SAMSUNG C&T CORPORATION plans to use this agreement as a springboard to begin full-scale development of SMR projects in Sweden and to use this as a foothold for expanding into the European SMR market, thereby broadening its global business opportunities.