We were promised smaller nuclear reactors. Where are they?

For over a decade, we’ve heard that small reactors could be a big part of nuclear power’s future.

Because of their size, small modular reactors (SMRs) could solve some of the major challenges of traditional nuclear power, making plants quicker and cheaper to build and safer to operate.

That future may have just gotten a little closer. In the past month, Oregon-based NuScale has reached several major milestones for its planned SMRs, most recently receiving a final approval from the US federal government for its reactor design. Other companies, including Kairos Power and GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy, are also pursuing commercial SMRs, but NuScale’s reactor is the first to reach this stage, clearing one of the final regulatory hurdles before the company can build its reactors in the US.

SMRs like NuScale’s planned reactors could provide power when and where it’s needed in easy-to-build, easy-to-manage plants. The technology could help curb climate change by replacing plants powered by fossil fuels, including coal.

But even as SMRs promise to speed up construction timelines for nuclear power, the path to this point has been full of delays and cost hikes. And the road ahead for NuScale still stretches years into the future, revealing just how much streamlining there still is to go before this form of nuclear power could be built quickly and efficiently.

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