France-headquartered nuclear start-up newcleo has acquired a French site in Chusclan (Gard) to build FASTER (Fuel process Assembly Storage Training and Enhanced Reality), an R&D innovation and training centre. It has also signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Italy-based iron and steel company Danieli & C Officine Meccaniche.
Newcleo is developing a LFR-AS-200 small modular lead-cooled fast reactor, which is currently in the conceptual design stage. The company, launched in London in 2021, relocated its headquarters to Paris in October 2023 reflecting its “unwavering focus on growing its European presence and delivering its ambitious timelines and strategic projects”. These include development of a precursor reactor in Italy by 2026; construction of a prototype reactor in France by 2031; and delivery of commercial reactors starting from 2033. The final investment decision for the first commercial power plant is expected around 2029.
Another newcleo project is the establishment of a mixed oxide (MOX) manufacturing plant in France by 2030. In June 2022, the company announced it had contracted France’s Orano for feasibility studies on the establishment of a MOX production plant. In December 2024, newcleo submitted its Safety Option File to France’s nuclear safety regulator for its fuel assembly testing facility.
FASTER is intended to support development of the future fuel assembly manufacturing facility. It will be developed in collaboration with leading Italian design company Pininfarina. Newcleo said the facility will include: dedicated spaces for testing engineering solutions and maintenance, including office areas; advanced training facilities, featuring rooms equipped for virtual and augmented reality, simulators, and a training workshop with real production equipment; and development and qualification workshops designed to test and optimise manufacturing processes using cutting-edge technologies, such as 3D printing, within a high-tech environment dedicated to innovation and precision engineering.
Newcleo founder and CEO Stefano Buono said the centre will play a crucial role in preparing and anticipating the operations of our future pilot fuel manufacturing line … as a first structuring step, it will also support the successful deployment of our pilot line at another site in France.” In February, Newcleo announced it had started the land acquisition process for its demonstration LFR-AS-30 small modular reactor in Indre-et-Loire in the Chinon Vienne et Loire community of municipalities in western France.
The MOU with Danieli, signed earlier in March, is to explore the integration of newcleo’s LFRs with Danieli’s steelmaking technology “to make a further step in combining the production of green steel with nuclear energy production”.
The companies will focus on developing “potential integrated solutions where newcleo’s LFRs provide both the electricity and high-temperature heat required to feed some of the Danieli Technologies processes for green steel production.
Newcleo said the future collaboration with Danieli “adds to the application-oriented partnerships newcleo has established with other world-class companies, including Fincantieri for naval propulsion, Maire for green chemistry, and Saipem for offshore nuclear applications, which are testament to the potential of innovative nuclear solutions in global competitiveness and decarbonisation”.
Danieli – based in Buttrio in north-east Italy – said it aims to provide steel makers with electricity and high-temperature heat through Newcleo’s nuclear energy solutions. It said the agreement could lead to energy supply solutions across the iron and steel value chain, including in applications linked to the Danieli Digital Melter and possibly the production of Green Hydrogen to power Danieli’s Energiron Direct Reduction Technology to produce metallic iron.
Newcleo has been very active in fundraising and signing partnership and collaboration agreements. Its business now counts over 90 partnerships, and more than 1,000 employees based in 19 locations across France, Italy, the UK, Switzerland, and Slovakia, including three manufacturing facilities.
This year alone it has signed an agreement for a Joint Venture Company (JVC) with Italy-based Maire’s subsidiary NextChem (Sustainable Technology Solutions) to develop a new generation commercial-scale power plant, based on newcleo’s 200 MWe design; two framework agreements with Slovakian nuclear firms Jadrová vyraďovacia spoločnosť (JAVYS) and VUJE to build up to four 200MW nuclear reactors in Slovakia; signed an agreement with Swedish nuclear energy company Blykalla for the joint research and development of materials for LFRs; and a memorandum of strategic cooperation with the Emirates Nuclear Energy Company (ENEC).
Since 2021 the company has raised a total of over €537m from institutional and individual investors and has seen an increasing number of European players joining its growing funding base – which to date counts over 700 shareholders.
While the newcleo website includes a mock-up of the LFR reactor, it provides very little technical information about the reactor design. Currently, the only operating liquid metal-cooled fast reactors are in Russia, using sodium as the coolant. Russia is also constructing the world’s first ever lead-cooled SMR (Brest-OD-300) in Seversk as part of a facility to demonstrate an on-site closed fuel cycle. This reactor is based on decades of complex research and development supported by the entire Russian nuclear industry. It is due to begin operation in 2029. By contrast, despite its rapid business expansion, newcleo’s technologies remain in the very early conceptual design stage.
