UTILITIES
WHAT IS AN SMR?
Small modular reactors, or SMRs, are an emerging technology in the world of nuclear energy.
As the name suggests, they are more compact than traditional nuclear power plants and can be built to order, which has led some commentators to dub them‘ flat-pack power stations’.
All this has the potential to cut the time and cost associated with the construction of nuclear plants, which can often take more than 10 years.
That said, there are only two SMRs currently operational today – the KLT-40S in Russia and the HTR-PM in China – though many are currently under development all around the world, including in the UK.
SGE, a Polish firm that recently submitted a proposal to build 14 SMRs in the UK, is one of the technology’ s leading proponents.
The company’ s CEO, Rafał Kasprów, says:“ Standardisation, repetition, modularisation and a fleet deployment strategy are the most effective ways to deliver new nuclear projects successfully, reducing costs, construction risk and delivery times.”
is helping to develop a small modular reactor beside Energy Northwest’ s Columbia Generating Station.
In Virginia, Amazon struck a separate agreement with Dominion Energy to develop a 300MW SMR near the North Anna nuclear plant.
What links all three of these initiatives is the company’ s US $ 500m investment in X-energy, the reactor developer behind the Washington project. Amazon says its support of X-energy will help fund manufacturing capacity for more than 5GW of new nuclear projects.
“ Nuclear is a safe source of carbonfree energy that can help power our
90 September 2026