Regulators must explore the possibility of harmonising international requirements for advanced and small modular reactor design evaluation and licensing

If current developments with small modular reactors in first month of 2020 are any indication of interest in this scale of nuclear technology, the 2020s could be the decade that SMRs take off. Here are six reports of interest in SMRs the U.S. and Europe.

The firm has committed to a $13 billion program to refurbish six of the units which will significantly extend their operating lives. It follows that any new construction of SMRs, or anything else such as a molten salt or other type of advanced unit,, will have to get past a significant financial hurdle in terms of verified cost competitiveness for any utility to decide to proceed with it.

A new small modular reactor (SMR) design has been announced by the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), EDF, Naval Group and TechnicAtome. The Nuward - with a capacity of 300-400 MWe - has been jointly developed using France's experience in pressurised water reactors (PWRs).