Sweden’s Kärnfull Next, a project developer of small modular reactor (SMR) campuses, signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with South Korean construction company Samsung C&T, during the recent Korea-Sweden Strategic Industry Summit in Seoul. The signing ceremony was attended by Kärnfull Next CEO Christian Sjölander, South Korea’s Ministry of Trade, Industry & Energy Trade Negotiation Headquarters Director-General Jeong In-gyo, and Samsung C&T Construction Business Group CEO Oh Se-cheol. The partnership aims to accelerate and strengthen the development of SMR campuses within the Swedish SMR programme, Re:Firm South.
Samsung C&T’s expertise in advanced construction and project financing positions it as a key player in realising Kärnfull Next’s plans for Sweden. Kärnfull Next said the partnership with Samsung C&T represents a significant milestone in the programme, focusing on special purpose vehicle (SPV) project financing, design, licensing, technology selection, environmental impact assessments, and construction preparations.
The Re:Firm South programme aims to establish SMR campuses in southern Sweden comprising a minimum of two SMR units and co-location capabilities, that provide electricity to the national grid and directly supply energy-intensive facilities such as AI data centres through direct or indirect power purchase agreements (PPAs).
Kärnfull Next has been conducting site selection and feasibility studies in several municipalities in Sweden since 2022. By establishing multiple SMR parks as part of the same programme, the company expects to achieve economies of scale in terms of technology selection, construction partners, PPAs and financing partners.
In June, Kärnfull Next announced Valdemarsvik Municipality in Östergötland as a candidate site for SMR development. In August 2023, Nyköping in Södermanland was announced as a candidate site within the programme. If Valdemarsvik is selected as the first municipality for Re:Firm South, the plan is for the first kilowatt-hours of clean and reliable electricity from the SMR park to be delivered in the first half of the 2030s. The SMR park in Valdemarsvik is initially planned to host between four and six small light water reactors, adding between 10-15 terawatt-hours (TWh) of clean firm electricity production a year.
Samsung C&T, together with Kärnfull Next, plans to begin follow-up work for power plant construction, including selecting related technologies and conducting environmental impact assessments. The two companies are working to develop a business model to build SMR power plants by 2032 and supply the electricity produced directly to data centres in Sweden. According to Samsung C&T, the aim is to continue building multiple power plants and attracting data centres at the same time to develop them into a complex campus.
“With a global leader like Samsung C&T at our side, providing expertise in areas such as project financing and advanced construction, we are taking the next step toward making SMRs a reality, contributing to Sweden’s goal of new nuclear power by 2035,” said Kärnfull Next CEO and co-founder Christian Sjölander.
“By combining our experience in global nuclear projects with their expertise in project development, we are confident that we can help meet Sweden’s future energy needs,” said Samsung C&T CEO Oh Se-cheol. The collaboration aims to bring the first project to start of construction by the late 2020s and will also pave the way for future SMR campuses and the development of co-located energy parks for facilities such as data centres at across the Nordic area.
Earlier in 2024, Kärnfull Next agreed a strategic partnership with Finland’s Steady Energy, a startup company spun out from the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland in 2023, to introduce SMRs for district heating in Sweden. Steady Energy is seeking to construct a heating plant in Finland based on its LDR-50 reactor technology. In 2022, Kärnfull Next also signed a MOU with GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy on the deployment of the BWRX-300 SMR in Sweden.
