Nuclear advocates have pushed for SMRs for more than a decade, but so far Russia is the only country to put them into commercial use.

The Commission set up a European SMR pre-Partnership in June with the overall objective of identifying enabling conditions and constraints, including financial ones, towards safe design, construction and operation of SMRs in Europe in the next decade and beyond in compliance with the EU legislative framework in general and to the Euratom legislative framework in particular.

Many oil and gas, drilling, and extraction operations take place in remote locations, and in many cases, it is not possible for these processes to be fuelled by electricity from the grid. It is here that microreactors (MRs) or small modular reactors (SMRs) could provide a low carbon alternative.

The SMR Alliance includes 11 government and public institutions, including the Ministry of Trade, Industry & Energy (MOTIE), Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP) and the Korea Energy Economics Institute, as well as 31 companies, including GS Energy, SK Inc, Samsung C&T, Daewoo E&C and Doosan Enerability.

Rosatom said that the design met "all post-Fukushima safety requirements for the modern NPP design - this is a compact modular nuclear power plant, featuring reduced construction time compared with large nuclear power plants".

The programme aims to support projects that will help to develop supply chains for SMR manufacturing and fuel supply and security to support Canada’s SMR industry, and to fund research on waste management solutions to ensure that SMRs, and the waste they generate, will be safe now and into the future.

Canadian and Polish nuclear regulators have extended their cooperation under a newly signed memorandum on joint activities in the field of small modular reactors (SMRs)

Last month, South Korean shipbuilder Samsung Heavy Industries announced it had completed the conceptual design for the CMSR Power Barge - a floating nuclear power plant based on compact MSRs It also obtained the basic certification of the design from the American Bureau of Shipping.

CNNC announced in July 2019 the launch of a project to construct an ACP100 reactor - also referred to as the Linglong One - at Changjiang.

The ARC-100 has also been selected for a demonstration project at NB Power's existing Point Lepreau nuclear power plant site as part of a joint strategic plan for SMR deployment set out earlier this year by the provincial governments of Ontario, Saskatchewan, New Brunswick and Alberta Canada’s SMR Roadmap.