Framatome has expanded its fuel manufacturing partnership with NuScale Power Corporation (NYSE: SMR) to include European facilities for fuel fabrication, while also receiving notice to qualify its Richland, Washington facility for U.S. production.

The expansion builds on an exclusive fuel manufacturing contract the companies signed in 2015. Framatome's European facilities will fabricate fuel assemblies for NuScale's European small modular reactor customers, while the Richland facility will manufacture fuel for U.S. customers.

Framatome received direction to produce at least 444 fuel assemblies for NuScale's first U.S. customer as early as 2030, according to the press release. The fuel design, called NuFUEL-HTP2, uses Framatome's HTP fuel and spacer grid technology.

"By leveraging our proven expertise and advanced American and European manufacturing facilities, we are ensuring reliable, high-quality fuel delivery for NuScale's customers worldwide," said Lionel Gaiffe, Senior Executive Vice President, Fuel Business Unit at Framatome.

NuScale's small modular reactors use fuel technology based on existing pressurized water reactor designs. The NuScale Power Module is a Generation III+ reactor that can generate 77 megawatts of electricity and can be scaled up to 924 megawatts through multiple module configurations.

Framatome's North American and European facilities have more than 55 and 50 years of manufacturing experience respectively. The Richland facility received the industry's first 40-year nuclear fuel fabrication license renewal from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in 2009.

NuScale is the first small modular reactor company to receive design certification from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The company was founded in 2007 and is based in Corvallis, Oregon.