Emerald Horizon AG and Dutch industrial group VDL Groep have begun construction of the heart of the SMRX — a thorium-based subcritical small modular reactor — in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. The announcement came on September 8, 2026, from the Emerald LaboraTHorium in Graz, where CEO and founder Florian Wagner and Markjan Vermeer, managing director of VDL ETG Technology & Development, signed the joint minutes formalizing the operational implementation of their contract.
The component being built is the so-called megawatt power loop, a high-temperature circuit through which molten liquid salt will circulate. The system operates at ambient pressure and reaches process temperatures of up to 900°C. This represents the critical bridge between laboratory research and real industrial production — not a small-scale demonstration, but a full system designed to validate the thermal and fluid-dynamic conditions of the entire energy setup. Details on the role of the particle accelerator — the device that acts as the reactor’s primary physical switch — will be disclosed at a subsequent press conference.
The SMRX is a thorium-based subcritical modular energy system that uses neither uranium nor plutonium as startup fuel. A container-sized module is designed to deliver approximately 25 megawatts of thermal power and 10 megawatts of electricity, with a 20-year operational lifespan without refueling. The technology is built on the principle of subcriticality: the reaction is not self-sustaining but depends on the particle accelerator, which eliminates the risk of runaway reactions at the source. The system also integrates the DUALstorePLUS hybrid storage unit with the ADES subcritical energy source.
VDL Groep is far from a casual partner. Founded in 1953 and now led by the third generation of the Van der Leegte family, the group operates across 20 countries with more than 14,000 employees and revenues of approximately €4 billion. The division involved in the project is VDL ETG, born from former Philips manufacturing facilities and acquired by VDL in 2006. It is one of ASML’s long-standing suppliers — ASML being the world’s sole producer of EUV lithography systems for semiconductor manufacturing. Bringing that level of precision engineering into modular nuclear technology is anything but a trivial choice.
Emerald Horizon’s financial standing adds further credibility to the venture. The company, founded in Graz in 2019, has been listed on the Vienna Stock Exchange since June 26, 2026, under the ticker SMRX, with a market capitalization exceeding €1.2 billion. Just days after the listing, Wagner personally committed €20 million in fresh equity, to be deployed across four tranches over two years. The company participates in Technical Working Groups 2 and 6 of the EU SMR Alliance, backed by the European Commission, and maintains subsidiaries in Slovakia and the United States.
If the Eindhoven power loop delivers the expected results, Emerald Horizon will have the technical proof it needs to attract larger industrial partners and advance toward regulatory certification. Europe’s SMR market remains wide open, and a thorium-based subcritical technology — validated by a name like VDL — could carve out a distinct position among the alternatives to conventional reactors.
