Rendering of a NuScale Power nuclear power plant [Image: NuScale]

Paragon Energy Solutions—a Fort Worth-based Mirion Technologies company that provides safety-related products and components for the nuclear industry—has been awarded a contract by Oregon-based NuScale Power, a leading provider of proprietary and innovative advanced small modular reactor (SMR) nuclear technology, to complete final design development of Paragon’s Highly Integrated Protection System (HIPS) for the NuScale Power Module.

NuScale has “the first and only SMR design” currently approved by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the company said.

The award marks a significant milestone, as NuScale already has components of 12 power modules in production. NuScale said it expects that nuclear plants deploying NPMs will feature one common control room to support up to 12 NuScale Power Modules, each capable of generating up to 77 megawatts of clean, carbon-free power.

Paragon President and CEO Doug Van Tassell said the contract “represents the culmination of years of collaboration between Paragon and NuScale, and we are proud that our HIPS platform is at the heart of the NPM’s protection systems.”

“The work we’re doing on MPS, SDIS, and PPS is foundational to bringing the first SMR of its kind into operation,” he added in a statement, “and there is no greater validation of our technology than being entrusted with the safety-critical systems of the most significant new reactor design in a generation.”

News of the new contract follows an earlier partnership between the two companies—and a nine-figure acquisition of Paragon.

In June 2025, Paragon partnered with NuScale to supply its CoreVision Neutron Monitoring System technology and its Highly Integrated Protection System (HIPS). Last September, Paragon was acquired by Atlanta-based Mirion in an all-cash $585 million deal.

‘A valuable technology partner’

Under the new contract, Paragon will complete the non-recurring engineering and design deliverables for three critical instrumentation and control systems built on the HIPS platform. Per the company:

:: The Module Protection System is a nuclear safety-related reactor protection system that safeguards each individual NPM.

:: The Safety Data Interface System (SDIS) is an augmented quality, post-accident monitoring system that provides operators with essential plant data in the event of an incident.

:: The Plant Protection System is a non-safety-related system responsible for control room habitability functions such as HVAC.

The contract also includes Independent Verification and Validation services for MPS development, an important step in qualifying safety-critical software for nuclear applications.

“Paragon has been a valuable technology partner in the development of the HIPS technology, advancing the digital instrumentation and control systems that are essential to safe and reliable plant operations,” said John Hopkins, NuScale Power’s president and CEO. “This partnership helps us to achieve the goal of delivering reliable, carbon-free power to our customers while ensuring the highest level of safety.”

Paragon said it designed HIPS to meet today’s cybersecurity requirements and the complexity of next-gen reactor designs. The platform delivers analog-like reliability while incorporating modern diagnostics that reduce maintenance costs, and its architecture can be configured from a single channel up to a full four-division Reactor Protection System.

HIPS also utilizes Model-Based Design to integrate system behavior and design documentation into a single environment, streamlining development and regulatory review, the company said—including NRC Safety Evaluation Report (SER) approval of its topical report in 2017, co-developed with NuScale.

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