Primary Study on the Prospect of Small Modular Reactor

Abstract

Compared with large scale nuclear power reactor, SMR has the feature of smaller power, shorter construction period, longer operating cycle between refueling, lower cost on location selection, and so on. Thus, SMR is suitable for today’s developing countries, which often have insufficient infrastructure and small electricity grids. In industrialized countries, the electricity market deregulation is calling for a flexibility of power generation and applications that smaller reactors may offer. In this paper, the prospect of SMR is discussed from technology development status, constraints, economic, etc.