EIB Backs Finland’s Nuclear Heating Push With Up to €40 Million

The deal marks the EIB’s first investment in small modular reactor technology and forms part of a broader financing package involving institutional, strategic and retail investors.

Heating homes without burning fossil fuels is at the centre of a new investment of up to €40 million from the European Investment Bank into Finnish nuclear-technology company Steady Energy. The funding will help develop a small modular reactor designed to deliver heat directly to district heating networks, offering a potential source of low-carbon warmth for communities that depend on shared heating systems.

The deal marks the EIB's first investment in small modular reactor technology and forms part of a broader financing package involving institutional, strategic and retail investors. Research, testing and licensing work will take place in Finland between 2026 and 2028, supporting Steady Energy's progress towards its first commercial deployment. The investment fits into the European Commission's strategy to bring Europe's first small and advanced modular reactors online by the early 2030s.

A Nuclear Reactor Built to Deliver Heat

Steady Energy's 50 MW reactor concept focuses on a familiar everyday need: keeping buildings warm. Conventional nuclear plants and most small modular reactors use reactor heat to generate electricity, but this design supplies heat as its main output, feeding it directly into district heating systems. Removing the electricity-generation stage allows a larger share of the reactor's thermal output to serve its intended purpose, with a simpler design intended to lower construction and operating costs.

The technology builds on established light water reactors, using water as both a coolant and a moderator to help control the nuclear reaction. Its lower-pressure design incorporates passive safety features and requires fewer systems, with underground construction planned to strengthen safety and security. These features remain part of a reactor concept that must progress through testing and licensing before commercial use, making the development work supported by the EIB a crucial step.

Helsinki Pilot Will Put Safety Systems to the Test

A non-nuclear pilot facility under construction in Helsinki will give Steady Energy a place to test key safety systems and generate evidence for the licensing process with Finland's national regulator. The company emerged from the Technical Research Centre of Finland, VTT, in 2023, and is now working to move its technology from research into practical projects. The pilot's role is to support that transition through testing, rather than operating as a nuclear heating plant.

Steady Energy Chief Executive Officer Tommi Nyman linked the project to the scale of demand for heat and Europe's dependence on imported fuels. "Over 40 percent of final energy demand is heat. Most of the heat we consume comes from fossil fuels," he said. For the company, replacing some of that fossil-fuel consumption with nuclear heat could give district heating operators another option for reducing emissions and exposure to fuel markets.

Patient Funding for the Road to Commercial Use

The EIB is providing the investment through a senior unsecured convertible loan, a structure that gives Steady Energy long-term funding and offers the bank the option to convert its investment into listed shares. Steady Energy and Finnish company 3North Partners Plc have announced a proposed combination and a listing of the combined business on Nasdaq First North Growth Market Finland. That proposed transaction is separate from the technical and regulatory work needed to bring the reactor into service.

EIB Group Vice-President Karl Nehammer described the investment as support for European innovation, energy autonomy and access to affordable clean energy, pointing to the potential for small modular reactors to complement renewables and reduce dependence on fossil fuels. Backing from the InvestEU programme connects the financing to wider European support for innovation and the green transition, giving Steady Energy resources to advance a heating technology whose commercial future will depend on successful development, licensing and deployment.