Korean investment fund DSPE gets permit to become equal partner in Romania’s SMR nuke project

DSPE Beta Private Equity Fund of South Korea, managed by DS Private Equity and a minority shareholder of NuScale, has a preliminary national security clearance from the Romanian state to take over 33.33% of the shares of RoPower Nuclear, the project company established by Romanian company Nuclearelectrica for the development of the small nuclear reactor (SMR) project, according to Profit.

The project company already hired NuScale to draft the feasibility study for the planned 462 MW nuclear power plant in Doicești.

The project company RoPower Nuclear is currently 50:50 owned by Nuclearelectrica (BVB: SNN), the operator of the Cernavodă nuclear plant, and privately owned Nova Power&Gas from the E-INFRA group of Cluj entrepreneurs Teofil Mureșan, Simion Muresan and Marian Pantazescu.

The financing of the project has been provided by Nuclearelectrica alone, though, and a third partner might help the company share the financial burden.

In July last year, it was officially announced that DSPE signed with SNN and Nova Power&Gas a preliminary agreement based on which it was going to invest EUR 75 million in RoPower Nuclear, to finance the feasibility study (FEED stage 2 – Front-End Engineering Design ) for the SMR nuclear power plant from Doicești.

The contract for the feasibility study, already signed, is worth some EUR 150 million (subject to revision).

(Photo: Nuclearelectrica.ro)