Finnish energy group Steady Energy has signed a letter of intent with Alva-yhtiöt, the city of Jyväskylä’s water and energy group, to study the suitability of small-scale nuclear power as a source of district heating for the city.
Steady Energy on May 19 said it could supply Jyväskylä with between two and six LDR-50 reactors, which would produce 100 MW to 300 MW of heat underground to serve the city’s needs.
The companies said the letter of intent supports a study to address the suitability of Steady Energy’s LDR-50 small nuclear heating plant for producing the city’s district heating, and to assess potential sites and the construction timetable. The companies are launching a year-long preliminary study, which will look at the feasibility of small nuclear heating plants in Jyväskylä from the perspectives of regulation, residents’ views, potential sites, land-use planning, technology and costs, among other factors. The companies said they may proceed to a concrete technical and commercial pre-planning phase after the study.
“We want to carefully assess whether small-scale nuclear power can be a suitable solution for Jyväskylä’s future heat production. At this stage, we are not making an investment decision, but we are investigating the prerequisites and gathering as much information as possible to support our final decision,” said Alex Schreckenbach, production director for Alva.
”Finnish energy companies are leading the shift to sustainable heat, and and Alva is part of that progress”, said Tommi Nyman, CEO of Steady Energy. Other Finnish cities that actively plan nuclear heating are Helsinki, Kuopio, and Kerava.
Steady Energy’s Finnish-designed LDR-50 is a small heat-only nuclear reactor, one of the simplest commercial designs in the world and the only design built underground. The LDR-50 has a significantly lower cost of energy than conventional nuclear plants. Construction time for a reactor is four to five years.
Steady Energy, founded in 2023, has said the small footprint of its underground facility makes it well-suited for cities. The company recently signed an agreement with Korea District Heating Corp., the district heating provider for the Seoul, South Korea, metropolitan area. A pilot version of the reactor is currently being built in the Finnish capital Helsinki, inside a decommissioned coal plant. The Finnish company has country offices in Sweden and Poland.
—Darrell Proctor is a senior editor for POWER.
