Global geoscience service company Fugro is partnering with UK startup Fermi Development Ltd. to develop a portfolio of new nuclear energy sites in the UK suitable for advanced or small modular reactors (SMRs).
Fugro’s role as a global supplier of geotechnical, survey, and geoscience services includes site characterization, risk management, and permitting support, while Suffolk-based Fermi focuses on acquiring land, securing permissions and licenses to start construction, obtaining grid-connection agreements, and establishing supplier agreements with reactor technology vendors.
The partnership aims to develop a portfolio of UK sites that can be prepped for a final investment decision (FID) with construction and commissioning to follow, according to a recent press release following a signing ceremony at Fugro’s head office in the Netherlands.
Fugro’s Role in US Recommissioning
Fugro entered the US SMR market through its major role in Holtec International’s planned construction of two SMR-300 reactors, which will add 600 MW of new capacity to the Palisades Nuclear Power Plant in Michigan. The plant’s original 800-MW reactor (shut down in 2022) is being recommissioned and is slated to restart operations in 2026.
Once restarted, the Michigan facility will become the first mothballed nuclear power plant in the US to be recommissioned.
US engineering firm Enercon Services awarded Fugro a contract in February for a comprehensive site investigation at Palisades to detail the geological, geophysical, and geotechnical conditions required before construction can proceed on the twin units, which will nearly double the plant’s electricity output, Fugro said.
On 2 December, the US Department of Energy said it would invest $400 million in Holtec to deploy the two lightwater SMRs.
In the same announcement, the DOE said it had awarded $400 million to the Tennessee Valley Authority to develop a GE Vernova Hitachi BWRX-300 SMR at the Clinch River Nuclear site in Tennessee, accelerate the deployment of additional units with Indiana Michigan Power in Indiana, and bolster the Element Materials Technology SMR testing facility in Huntsville, Alabama.
UK Selects Wylfa as Site for First SMR Power Plant
The UK government has chosen Wylfa, Anglesey (North Wales), as the site for the country’s first SMR power plant, which will use Rolls‑Royce SMR technology and be developed by Great British Energy‑Nuclear starting in 2026.
With FID targeted for 2029, the project’s initial phase includes three units and allows for expansion to as many as eight SMRs. The site is expected to begin supplying approximately 1.5 GW of electricity to the grid by the mid‑2030s.
After launching its business in 2024, Fermi is positioning itself, and its new partnership with Fugro, with a different business model that creates a pipeline of “ready‑to‑build” sites not tied to any specific government-backed projects such as Wylfa.
“Fermi already has a pipeline of sites at different points in the process of characterization and development and are looking forward to accelerating their progress through the partnership,” James Pateman, Fermi Development CEO, said.
Rod Eddies, solution director land site characterization at Fugro, added, “Enabled by our geo-risk management solutions, this … collaboration with Fermi provides the nuclear segment with an opportunity to deliver smarter, proportionate, and accelerated site development ...”