Advancing U.S. SMR Diplomacy for a Safe and Secure Energy Transition: Romania’s Pioneering Role
As the United States seeks to strengthen its global leadership in energy innovation, small modular reactors (SMRs) emerge as a powerful tool of diplomatic engagement in Europe. The U.S.-Romanian strategic partnership, in deploying the first European SMR facility in Doicești in 2029, is a significant milestone in transatlantic energy cooperation. As more European nations express interest in SMR technology in their quest for safe, secure, and affordable energy, the United States can maintain its edge in nuclear energy deployment and standard-setting.
Small modular reactors represent a transformative approach to nuclear energy because of their scalability and flexibility. The miniaturization of nuclear reactors is not new. It has been used as early as the 1960s for military purposes in submarines and aircraft carriers. The contemporary SMR concept took shape in the early 2000s, with several companies from the United States, Russia, the People’s Republic of China (PRC), Argentina, Canada, and South Korea pursuing parallel development paths. One of the early commercial contributors in the United States, NuScale Power, began the work on design in the 2000s and partnered with the Department of Energy in 2013. NuScale became the first company to receive approval from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission for small modular reactor design in 2020.
Unlike traditional nuclear power plants built on-site, SMRs are designed in factories. This innovative process reduces construction time and costs, improves control mechanisms, and enhances accessibility for a wide range of utilities and countries. Their modularity allows for capacity expansion, which makes them more adaptable to the energy needs of diverse communities. Modern SMRs have a capacity of up to 300 megawatts (MW) per unit and incorporate passive safety systems for maintaining safe conditions without external power. Their smaller size makes them suitable for replacing aging coal plants and integrating them with renewable sources while maintaining grid stability. These characteristics make SMRs attractive for countries that want to accelerate their transition towards clean energy without over-reliance on the unpredictable nature of renewable energy.
Romania’s Pioneering Role in SMR Technology Deployment
The Romanian-U.S. partnership on nuclear energy intensified during the first Trump presidency, which was simultaneous with a break in the Bucharest-Beijing nuclear relations. In March 2019, the state-owned Romanian corporation Nuclearelectrica signed a memorandum of understanding with NuScale Power to study potential developments in the use of SMRs. In 2020, Romania canceled the deal made in 2013 to build two new nuclear reactors with the PRC’s General Nuclear Power Corporation, GCNPC, a deal in which the Chinese company was planned to retain a minimum of 51% ownership. The Romanian government chose the U.S. in 2020 as the technological partner for cooperating on the construction of reactors three and four at the Cernavodă nuclear power plant, which signaled Bucharest’s shift towards a de-risking strategy in relation to Beijing. This shift was later implemented in other strategic sectors, such as telecommunications, where Romania was one of the first European countries to ban Huawei from its 5G networks’ bids. This ban was also extended to include 6G technology.
Romania has three decades of experience in the safe use of nuclear energy through two operable reactors in Cernavodă. Nuclear energy plays a leading and progressively substantive role in Romania’s energy mix, contributing to over 20% of the country’s electricity. This type of energy is enjoying growing public support. A survey conducted in 2020 shows that the majority of Romanian citizens believe that nuclear power production is a safe process for people and the environment, with the share of those with a positive opinion about nuclear energy increasing from 56% in 2018 to 63% in 2020. The popular support is matched by strong political consensus among the government. Romania has joined France, Poland, Hungary, the European Commission and other member states in an alliance for promoting nuclear energy within the European Union. Romania’s former president Klaus Iohannis and Energy Minister Sebastian Burduja have long advocated within the multilateral framework of the UN Conference of the Parties (COP) the need for advancing the use of nuclear energy as part of global decarbonization efforts.
At COP 26 in November 2021, the U.S. Secretary of Energy Granholm and Romania’s Minister of Energy Popescu announced a teaming agreement to advance the deployment of NuScale Power’s innovative SMR technology, which would lead Romania to become a pioneer and catalyst for SMRs in Europe. This pilot project will install six SMRs in Doicești, a town that previously housed a coal-fired power plant, which has been inactive since 2009. The SMRs are set to go online as early as 2029, putting Romania at the forefront of nuclear energy innovation.
In July 2024 at the Partnership for Transatlantic Energy and Climate Cooperation (P-TECC) Ministerial in Bucharest, the United States and Romania announced that the project, called Front-End Engineering and Design (FEED), had entered a new phase. The Texas-based Fluor Corporation and Romania’s RoPower Nuclear signed an agreement for a study that will advance the project closer to a final investment decision and later construction. In October 2024, the U.S. Export-Import (Exim) Bank’s Board of Directors approved a significant commitment of a $98 million loan for the pre-project services. The Romanian Ministry of Energy Burduja has described the use of SMRs as a key for “resolving the energetic trilemma, as they guarantee safe and clean energy at a fair price”.
As FEED preparations continue, a pertinent question concerns the degree of social acceptance of this new technology. Although social acceptance remains high for this endeavor, some voices raise concerns over the project in the Doicești community, emphasizing the risks of testing new SMR technology in Romania as well as more general protests against nuclear energy from civil society organizations such as Greenpeace Romania. Overall sentiment can be attributed to Romanians’ historically positive general opinion of the use of nuclear energy and to the massive support by the mainstream political elite. This Romanian-U.S. project has transcended partisan disputes as it is considered of great strategic importance for ensuring Romania’s energy security. Moreover, even though Romania had several rounds of elections in 2024, including presidential elections in which Russian malign influence was significant, the SMR project was not brought into the arena of political debate.
SMRs Spark Interest in Europe
Although a pioneer, Romania is not the only country that wants to benefit from this nuclear energy innovation. Several countries in Europe have expressed interest in SMR programs as part of their energy transition strategies. The European Commission announced in February 2024 that it will launch its own reactors by the early 2030s. Under the European Industrial Alliance, the European executive body selected nine small modular reactor projects to accelerate their deployment on the EU market, including two lead-cooled fast reactors. The Polish Ministry of Climate and Environment has also authorized the construction of 24 BWRX-300 small modular reactors, based on a technology of the American company GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy. These SMRs will be distributed across six sites and are scheduled to go online by 2030.
While Romania and Poland are the most advanced in their SMR implementation plans due to their partnerships with American companies, there are European states that have made commitments to develop domestic SMR technology. France, a country with a strong nuclear energy tradition, is scheduled to create a unique and simplified SMR design— NUWARD—through its state-owned company Électricité de France (EDF) and deploy it in the early 2030s. The United Kingdom provided significant funding for the Rolls-Royce SMR program, with plans for deployment in the early 2030s. The Czech government has selected the Rolls-Royce SMR as its preferred supplier in 2024, despite earlier talks with the U.S.’s NuScale. Countries like Estonia, Bulgaria, and Sweden are considering SMR technology to satisfy their industrial sector’s energy needs, enhance energy security, and reduce their carbon footprint.
Will the Trump 2.0 Administration Continue to Advance SMR Diplomacy in Europe?
Under the Biden administration, the energy component of the transatlantic partnership gained new strategic value. This shift was influenced both by the commitment to meet the goals of the Paris climate agreement and the need to reduce Europe’s dependence on Russian gas after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The Biden administration exercised SMR diplomacy by supporting the Romanian-U.S. SMR project and frequently sending high-ranking officials to Bucharest to mark key milestones in this endeavor.
Donald Trump has signaled that energy leadership will also be a core component of its foreign and security policy strategy in his second term. Although the two presidencies’ views could not be more different on accelerating the clean energy transition, advancing SMR diplomacy in Europe serves critical U.S. national interests regardless of ideology. The strategic rationale focuses on economic, geopolitical, and technological leadership factors. From an economic point of view, the European SMR market is a significant commercial opportunity for American companies. As European nations seek to reduce carbon emissions and commit to do so in the National Energy and Climate Plans submitted to the European Commission, the demand for SMRs is likely to grow substantially. Geopolitically, SMR diplomacy serves as a powerful tool to strengthen the transatlantic alliance and help reduce Europe’s energy dependence on regimes whose strategic agendas run counter to U.S. national interests, such as Russia. One must also take into account that the PRC committed to selling 30 overseas nuclear reactors to its Belt and Road Initiative partners by 2030 and that Beijing is leading in the launch of cost-competitive SMRs. From a Great Power Competition perspective, advancing SMR leadership in Europe would allow the United States to shape international norms and safety protocols, while maintaining the edge of the high-skilled workforce in the American nuclear industry.
Drawing insights from the productive Romanian-U.S. strategic collaboration in SMR deployment, the new Trump administration may explore different policy avenues for bolstering SMR diplomacy in Europe. This may include leveraging U.S. strategic partnership with the Three Seas Initiative format, composed of countries in Central and Eastern Europe that are seeking to improve connectivity in transportation, energy, and digitalization. Such diplomatic engagements in ‘minilateral’ frameworks, like the Three Seas Initiative, are essential to promote U.S. leadership in nuclear energy and identify new partners for SMR deployment. Furthermore, the United States must empower allies to speak more persuasively to their citizens about the benefits of SMR technology to mitigate potential disinformation campaigns from geopolitical rivals, like the PRC.
The new administration should continue to support U.S. nuclear companies like NuScale Power and GE Hitachi through targeted export promotion programs, trade missions, and political support in untangling the European regulatory frameworks. The U.S. Export-Import Bank and Development Finance Corporation should also continue their support for SMR projects in Europe through loan guarantees for facilitating project development. Finally, the Department of Energy should continue to invest in research and development of nuclear energy solutions and act as a catalyst for supporting regulatory harmonization and expertise sharing with its European allies.
The outlook for the future of the transatlantic partnership under the new Trump administration is shaky. Given the new president’s increasingly transactional approach to Europe, identifying policy avenues where win-win cooperation is possible must be an imperative for European policymakers. Nuclear energy is such an avenue, and Romania’s pioneering example confirms this.
Views expressed are the author’s own and do not represent the views of GSSR, Georgetown University, or any other entity. Image Credit: CE Energy News