Doosan gets paid to build the reactor NuScale still has to sell
The only NRC-approved small modular reactor just moved a step closer to hardware, but the money in this deal flows to the Korean factory, not to the American designer still waiting for a single binding customer.
Richard Tang · 3 min read
Doosan Enerbility signed a contract on October 29 to build the core reactor vessel module for NuScale Power's+6.70% — NuScale Power, up 6.70 percent today small modular reactor 1, and that is the one link in this chain that already works. The factory is ready, the design is approved, and the manufacturer gets paid. The missing link is a customer: NuScale has no binding power purchase agreement, the contract under which a buyer commits to purchase the plant's electricity, and its shareholders pay to keep the pipeline warm.
The factory link just moved
Doosan, the Korean heavy-equipment maker, will fabricate the upper reactor pressure vessel, the component capping the vessel that holds high-temperature, high-pressure coolant, at its Changwon plant. The deal expands a partnership dating to 2019 and a 2023 materials contract into full-scale commercial manufacturing 1. NuScale chief executive John Hopkins called it an approved design becoming "a module ready for actual delivery" 1; COO Carl Fisher and Doosan president Kim Jong-du signed at the ceremony 1.
NuScale remains the only small modular reactor developer with design approval from the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission 3.
The demand link is empty, and the revenue shows it
Every disclosed arrangement on the customer side is non-binding: up to 6 gigawatts with the Tennessee Valley Authority, carried with no financial guarantee, and the RoPower venture in Romania, not yet at a binding stage 3.
The revenue line confirms the gap. Second-quarter revenue was $75,000 4, down from $8.1 million a year earlier, most of which came from a single related-party project 5, against a quarterly net loss that widened from $37.6 million to $50.1 million 4.
NuScale's revenue is collapsing toward zero
Data
| Revenue ($M) | |
|---|---|
| Q1 '25 | 13.38$M |
| Q2 '25 | 8.05$M |
| Q3 '25 | 8.24$M |
| Q4 '25 | 1.81$M |
| Q1 '26 | 0.56$M |
| Q2 '26 | 0.08$M |
The structure behind the pipeline matters more than its size. The TVA agreement was signed by ENTRA1 Energy, NuScale's exclusive commercialization partner; NuScale was not a party 5.
The pipeline runs through ENTRA1, and NuScale pays for it
Under a milestones agreement, NuScale has already recorded a $507.4 million expense for the first payment to ENTRA1, and a binding power purchase agreement triggers a second payment worth 35% of the total, near $1.2 billion if the 72-module scope holds 5. ENTRA1 also holds sole discretion over whether to buy from NuScale at all, at a capped module price 5. A securities class action alleges NuScale misled investors about ENTRA1's operational capabilities; the company denies wrongdoing 3.
Who carries the risk
Doosan collects fabrication revenue whether or not a plant is ever financed; NuScale's shareholders need a signed buyer, and the stock trades below $6 34. The value in this chain sits at the binding contract, not the factory. The event to watch is a signed power purchase agreement between TVA and ENTRA1, and note what it costs: it would hand ENTRA1 a payment near $1.2 billion, with module revenue arriving years later at a price ceiling set before any order exists 5.
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