SMR Business Day 2025: Nordic Collaboration at the Core of a Clean Heat Future
6 May 2025, Espoo, Finland – Hanasaari-Hanaholmen Cultural Center
Hosted by FinNuclear, the SMR Business Day 2025 gathered over 200 industry leaders, regulators, developers, and financiers at the Hanasaari-Hanaholmen Cultural Center in Espoo to discuss the future of Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) in the Nordic region.
The event offered a full-day program focused on decarbonizing heat and electricity, navigating regulation, and securing financing for SMRs. Participants included key government officials, utilities, private developers, legal and regulatory experts, and emerging start-ups each contributing their perspective on what’s needed to make SMRs a reality in Finland and across the region.
Photos by Matti Rajala
Opening Remarks: The Policy Foundation
The event began with a keynote from Minister of Economic Affairs Wille Rydman, who underscored the urgency of decarbonizing sectors like district heating, electricity, and data centers. He noted the importance of SMRs in achieving these goals and praised Finland’s leading institutions Fortum, VTT, and LUT University for conducting feasibility studies and pushing forward pilot concepts. The Minister emphasized that while technology and regulation are critical, financial structures and government industry collaboration must evolve in parallel to enable deployment.
Legal and Industrial Perspectives on SMR Development
Next, George Borovas, head of nuclear at Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP, provided a global legal perspective. He detailed the challenges that come with financing nuclear projects, including risk perception, regulatory uncertainty, and lack of standardized delivery models. Borovas encouraged early-stage clarity in ownership, licensing, and vendor arrangements, stressing that “SMRs are not easier to finance, they are just smaller.” However, with the right instruments, they represent a first-mover opportunity for nations willing to act decisively.
Kati Ruohomäki, Chief Policy Adviser at the Confederation of Finnish Industries (EK), followed with insights into EU-level energy and industrial policy. She represented the Business Alliance for Nuclear, which calls for three major shifts:
- Technology-neutral policy frameworks
- Equitable access to financing tools like the European Investment Bank and Innovation Fund
- Support for industrial scale-up and cross-border collaboration
Ruohomäki warned that EU ambitions to decarbonize industry cannot succeed without a strong nuclear pillar, particularly for clean hydrogen and district heat production.
Post-Coffee Break: Technical Readiness and Industry Prototypes
Following the coffee break, the program shifted to practical implementation. Jani Halinen from VTT gave an overview of Finland’s nuclear R&D infrastructure, highlighting the technology readiness levels (TRLs) of various SMR designs. He emphasized the need for early regulatory involvement, strong international collaboration, and closing the funding gap between early-stage innovation and commercial deployment.
Matti Pentti, CCO of Steady Energy, introduced the LDR-50: a 50 MW thermal, low-pressure, passively cooled SMR, designed specifically for district heating. This underground modular reactor is engineered for simplicity and scalability. Pentti detailed plans for licensing in Finland, with commercial rollout targeted across the Nordics and Eastern Europe in the 2030s. The design boasts a levelized cost of heat (LCOH) below 40 €/MWh and 95% thermal efficiency.
Tor Stendahl, representing Calogena, backed by the Gorgé Group, presented a complementary concept: a 30 MWth pressurized water SMR for district heat. Calogena’s strategy focuses on proven technology, strong European supply chains, and multi-unit fleet development. Stendahl outlined regulatory steps already underway in France and expressed keen interest in deployment opportunities in Finland.
Jussi Heinonen, Director at STUK, the Finnish Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority, concluded the morning sessions by detailing the upcoming Nuclear Energy Act revision and over 22 regulatory reforms in progress. He emphasized Finland’s commitment to a technology-neutral, risk-informed regulatory model and highlighted efforts to harmonize licensing with international standards. Heinonen acknowledged the challenges of communication, complexity, and public trust but underscored STUK’s proactive role in enabling safe SMR deployment.
Afternoon Sessions: Nordic Feasibility and Regional Strategy
The post-lunch session opened with Anni Jaarinen from Fortum, who shared results from a major two-year feasibility study. The study analyzed 11 SMR designs across technical, economic, and regulatory criteria. The conclusion: while SMRs are viable, real projects demand strong execution certainty, risk-sharing models, and standardized technologies. Without these, developers face too much exposure to volatility in power markets and capital costs.
Jaarinen then hosted a panel discussion titled “What is needed to develop SMRs in the Nordic region?” with participation from:
- Christian Sjölander, Kärnfull Next (Sweden)
- Kalev Kallemets, Fermi Energia (Estonia)
- Janne Liuko, Helen Oy (Finland)
- Øyvind Aas-Hansen, Norsk Kjernekraft AS (Norway)
Panelists explored project risk, licensing alignment, supply chain development, and financing. Common themes included:
- The importance of fleet deployment to reduce costs
- Customer contracts and power purchase agreements (PPAs) as critical financial enablers
- Repurposing brownfield sites (e.g., coal or industrial facilities) as ideal SMR locations
- The role of strong ownership organizations with deep nuclear experience
Financing the Future: A New Model for Nuclear Investment
The final session began with Milko Kovachev from the International Bank for Nuclear Infrastructure (IBNI), who introduced the concept of a dedicated multilateral development bank for nuclear energy. His proposal centers on a $50 billion fund to de-risk SMR and large-scale nuclear investments by acting as an anchor lender, issuing green bonds, and supporting first of a kind projects.
Kovachev stressed that current global nuclear investments are less than half of what’s needed to meet climate targets and that only a purpose-built financial institution can mobilize the required capital efficiently.
He then joined a panel moderated by Harri Varjonen (FinNuclear), along with George Borovas and Prof. Juhani Hyvärinen (LUT University), to discuss financing mechanisms for nuclear deployment. Key themes included:
- The need for long-term revenue visibility to attract private capital
- Use of blended finance models combining public guarantees with private equity
- Importance of regulatory harmonization and first-mover government support
- The potential for repurposing fossil and industrial sites to reduce capex
The panel also reflected on international best practices, such as the UAE’s success in developing a localized supply chain and financing model and called for European cooperation in standardizing project evaluation.
Closing Thoughts: From Vision to Execution
SMR Business Day 2025 showcased how far Finland and the broader Nordic region have come in turning the SMR vision into an investable, scalable reality. Key takeaways from the day included:
- The importance of political and policy alignment with industrial and financial actors
- The growing readiness of multiple Nordic companies to move from feasibility to execution
- The role of regulatory reform and harmonization in reducing project risk
- The urgency of establishing tailored financing tools to unlock deployment at scale
The Nordic region has the technical know-how, public trust, and policy stability to lead in SMR deployment not just for electricity, but for district heating and industrial decarbonization. What remains is coordination, commitment, and capital.
This summary was contributed by Areeb Murad & Asad Mehmood, who are Master’s degree students in Innovative and Sustainable Energy Engineering & Research Assistants at Aalto University.
