Framatome and NuScale Power expanded their partnership in early 2026 to include Framatome's European fuel fabrication facilities and a notice to qualify Framatome's Richland, Washington plant to produce NuScale's NuFUEL-HTP2 fuel assemblies. The notice directs production of at least 444 fuel assemblies for NuScale's first US customer as early as 2030. This is a critical supply chain milestone ensuring fuel availability ahead of first reactor deployments. Framatome brings decades of PWR fuel experience in North America and Europe. The partnership was extended again in May 2026 to cover Framatome's European facilities fabricating fuel assemblies for NuScale's European SMR customers, a step for the Romanian and Czech deployments that reduces logistics cost and US export dependency; Framatome was originally selected in 2015 to fabricate fuel for US customers and has fuel fabrication plants in France, Germany and Sweden. A record for the European expansion carried a 462 MW placeholder capacity (the Doicești plant).