Full Title: The NEA Small Modular Reactor Dashboard
Author(s): Nuclear Energy Agency
Publisher(s): Nuclear Energy Agency, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)
Publication Date: March 13, 2023
Full Text: Download Resource
Description (excerpt):
Nuclear energy already plays an important role in many countries’ energy systems, supplying approximately 10% of the world’s electricity from 444 nuclear power reactors in operation. These reactors are mainly gigawatt-scale, providing on-grid non-emitting baseload electricity. Innovation in SMRs is advancing in several countries. The innovation pipeline is poised to produce a range of commercial SMRs of different sizes, with a range of outlet temperatures, and new attributes and potential benefits in the areas of safety, flexibility, and economics, as well as spent fuel and waste management. The pipeline of SMRs has the potential to support a variety of energy policy priorities, including decarbonisation of electricity as well as decarbonisation of new applications where large-scale nuclear and variable renewables may have limitations. These new markets and applications range from coal replacement for on-grid power, to fossil cogeneration replacement for industries or district heating and diesel replacement for off-grid mining. In many cases, SMRs would be a game-changer to reach net zero
in different regions and settings.
The Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) SMR Dashboard looks beyond technology readiness level (TRL) and assesses progress across six additional enabling conditions: licensing readiness, siting, financing, supply chain, engagement and fuel. In each area, the NEA defines objective criteria that reflect substantial progress towards first-of-a-kind (FOAK) deployment and commercialisation. The NEA SMR Dashboard has exclusively used information from verifiable public sources. The compilation of The NEA SMR Dashboard reveals substantial progress towards SMR deployment and commercialisation in NEA and non-NEA member countries, with much of this progress taking place during the past two years.