Small Modular Reactors (SMRs): Challenges and Opportunities - 2021

Nuclear Power Industry

The OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) published this report in 2021 indicating that policymakers, nuclear power companies and energy analysts around the world have been demonstrating a growing interest in the potential of small modular reactors (SMRs) as a competitive, low-carbon technology component of future integrated energy systems. SMRs harbor the promise of inherent safety features, of simplification and standardization that could make nuclear capacity far easier and more economic to deploy, and of significant advancements in terms of the overall flexibility of nuclear energy in meeting future energy needs. Developers are making significant progress towards deployment of demonstration plants, but important questions remain to be answered regarding the commercial viability of SMRs.

In 2011, the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) published Current Status, Technical Feasibility and Economics of Small Nuclear Reactors (NEA, 2011), which mainly focuses on factors influencing the economic performance of SMRs. The report was followed by the publication of Small Modular Reactors: Nuclear Energy Market Potential for Near-Term Deployment (NEA, 2016). This latter study provided a first estimation of the size of the global SMR market by 2035 and concluded that future prospects could strongly vary depending on factors such as successful licensing and supply chain maturity.

Energy markets have continued to evolve in parallel – underpinned by more ambitious decarbonization policies – which has led to the emergence of new opportunities for all low-carbon technologies, including SMRs. In addition, the difficulties encountered by recent nuclear projects in OECD countries, which are based on traditional large Generation III+ nuclear designs, have further enhanced the desire for nuclear technologies that are more affordable and easier to construct.

In June 2017, the NEA Nuclear Law Committee (NLC) held a topical session on the legal aspects of SMRs. This session highlighted some issues that would need further discussion with regard to the application of the nuclear liability regimes to floating/transportable SMRs (such as the need to clearly incorporate them in the definition of “nuclear installation” and the concept of “operator”). The Committee also welcomed further assessment of the legal aspects of regulatory issues under the NLC Working Party on the Legal Aspects of Nuclear Safety (WPLANS). Similarly, at the NEA Committee on Nuclear Regulatory Activities (CNRA) topical session held in June 2019, the decision was made to consider initiatives related to SMRs within the context of the overall strategic review of the CNRA activities.

This present report is the most recent NEA contribution within this context, providing a comprehensive overview of the SMR technologies in order to assess the opportunities, and more importantly, the main challenges that these technologies have to overcome to achieve large-scale deployment and economic competiveness. It provides an overview of technical, economic and market aspects of previous publications, and it explores licensing, regulatory, legal and supply chain issues. The next steps in SMR development, will require more extensive international collaboration and governmental support in all these
interconnected dimensions to build a global and robust SMR market