A start-up files the first authorization request for a mini nuclear reactor in France

The Jimmy company is the first to submit a “creation authorization application file” among the ten small modular reactor projects currently monitored by the nuclear police in France.

The first authorization request for a mini nuclear reactor in France was submitted on Monday April 29, announced the company leading the file, the French start-up Jimmy. The latter hopes to ultimately be able to directly connect a mini-reactor with a power of 10 megawatts to the industrial complex of a sugar group located in Bazancourt (Marne), which produces alcohol and bioethanol.

This reactor is a kind of nuclear fuel boiler whose objective is to provide steam to industry “by replacing the gas burners”which release greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, according to this company created in 2020. “We offer a generator that can be adapted to any industrial site that consumes steam to make it a source of heat, cheaper than gas and carbon-free”explained Antoine Guyot, the co-founder.

This project is the first to be the subject of a “creation authorization request file” to the government, among the ten small modular reactor (PRM, or SMR in English) projects currently monitored by the Nuclear Safety Authority. The instruction phase can take at least three years.

Mini-reactors already in service in Russia and China

Smaller, less powerful than their big brothers in the historic nuclear fleet, SMRs must be able to produce electricity, but also provide heat to heavy industries (glass, chemicals, steel, etc.), today very dependent on ‘fossil fuels. ASN promises to be “much more demanding” with regard to these new objects, intended to be mass-produced and deployed in numbers to be economically profitable.

Alongside Jimmy, other projects are targeting the end of 2026 for their demand, such as the Calogena boiler or the SMR carried by a subsidiary of EDF, Nuward. In total, more than 80 projects have been identified around the world, of varying maturity. So far, only two countries have announced that they have put them into service: Russia (two SMRs on board a barge) and China (also two units), according to the 2023 report on the state of the nuclear industry produced by independent experts.