newcleo and Slovak R&D Company VUJE Sign Agreement on Advanced Nuclear Technology Development

The agreement aims to foster closer cooperation between nuclear experts from both companies, focusing on newcleo's lead-cooled fast reactor (LFR) technology and mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel. A key goal is exploring the potential re-use of Slovakia's existing spent nuclear fuel to power the reactors – which is central to newcleo’s aim of closing the nuclear fuel cycle.

Specific areas of cooperation may include the assessment of deploying newcleo's LFR technology in Slovakia, exploring fuel cycle solutions to potentially re-use Slovakia's spent nuclear fuel inventory, collaborating on research and development activities and developing skills and capabilities in advanced nuclear technologies and as building on the previous experience and development work of VUJE, a.s., in the field of high-temperature fast reactors and reprocessing of used nuclear fuel from VVER-440 reactors as well.

Stefano Buono, CEO of newcleo said:

"Slovakia has more than 50 years of nuclear tradition, know-how and human capital in highly-skilled experts and  VUJE has been the cornerstone of nuclear in this field. We aim to partner with VUJE on further technical development of advanced nuclear reactors which can make use of spent nuclear fuel. This cooperation agreement could further accelerate our R&D and Engineering activities in Europe. I am convinced that this cooperation can bring us closer to a role model solution for many European countries to decarbonise their electricity production effectively and provide a sustainable solution to their stocks of spent nuclear fuel."

Matej Korec, CEO of VUJE, a. s., said:

"VUJE, as the Slovak market leader in nuclear energy and services, is keen to cooperate on further development of state-of-the-art nuclear technologies. We believe advanced modular reactor technologies and closing the fuel cycle have great potential for the future of nuclear energy in Slovakia and Europe. By participating in newcleo's plans, we hope to help the technology become available sooner."

Photo from the left: Andrew John Murdoch, Managing Director, UK and Slovakia Operations, newcleo; Miroslav Šarišský, Global Human Resources Director, newcleo; Matej Korec, CEO and Member of the Board, VUJE, a. s., Andrej Žiarovský; Director for Development and International Operations and Member of the Board, VUJE, a. s.

This agreement is the first entered into by newcleo's recently established Slovak subsidiary – newcleo s.r.o, demonstrating the company's commitment to creating a pan-European project involving multiple countries. It confirms newcleo's interest in expanding its activities in Slovakia and its intention to further broaden its European-wide research capacities.

newcleo has been in active communication with major players in the Slovakian nuclear industry and the government since 2023. In December 2023, it signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Ministry of Economy of the Slovak Republic and Nuclear Decommissioning Company (JAVYS) to explore collaboration opportunities and further develop advanced modular reactor technologies.

Andrew John Murdoch, Managing Director, UK and Slovakia Operations, newcleo, and Matej Korec, CEO and Member of the Board, VUJE, a. s.

About newcleo

Privately funded, newcleo was launched in 2021 – and since raised a total of EUR 400m – to be an innovator in the field of nuclear energy. Its mission is to generate safe, clean, economic and practically inexhaustible energy for the world, through a radically innovative combination of existing, accessible technologies.

With visionary co-founders, newcleo capitalises on thirty years of R&D activity in metal-cooled fast reactors and liquid-lead cooling systems, and our senior management and advisory team can boast hundreds of years in cumulative hands-on experience.

Counting on over 750 highly skilled employees across the Europe, newcleo has business, scientific, operations and industrial manufacturing capabilities in a vertically integrated model designed to deliver its ambitious timeline for its plan-to-market.

newcleo’s technology, mostly comprising a novel approach to already qualified solutions, addresses equally well the three challenges affecting the nuclear industry to date: waste, safety and cost.

Waste: fast reactors are capable of efficient “burning” (i.e., fission) of depleted uranium, plutonium and Minor Actinides. When operated with MOX fuel generated from reprocessed nuclear waste, newcleo’s reactors not only ensure sustainability by closing the fuel cycle, but can also boost energy independence.

Safety: lead-cooled reactors operate at atmospheric pressure. The properties of lead (thermal capacity and conductivity, boiling point, chemically inert, low neutron activation, shielding properties) together with newcleo’s passive safety systems ensure very high levels of safety

Cost: newcleo’s reactor design has been optimised over the last 20 years leading to the concept of an ultra-compact and transportable 200MWe module with improvements in energy density compared to other technologies. Costs are kept low by means of simplicity, compactness, modularity, atmospheric pressure operation and elevated output temperature. newcleo is also working to significantly invest in MOX fuel manufacturing in developed countries, extracting energy from the current nuclear industry by-products. newcleo is ready to develop a new, sustainable, and completely safe way of generating nuclear energy that will help humanity reach zero emissions, and mitigate global warming.

About our company VUJE, a. s.:

VUJE is a leading engineering company in Slovakia specializing in nuclear power plant design, commissioning, operation support and decommissioning. With over 45 years of experience, VUJE provides a wide range of services for the nuclear industry in Slovakia and internationally.

VUJE is also the Slovak market leader in the field of nuclear energy and services for the support and operation of the transmission and distribution system. VUJE provides design and implementation of systems for nuclear power plants, commissioning and decommissioning of NPPs, performs nuclear safety analyses, performs non-destructive testing, develops information systems for NPP management, designs and manufactures equipment for the nuclear industry.