Small modular reactors

Article By:

Ingersoll, Daniel T. NuScale Power, LLC, Corvallis, Oregon.

Last reviewed:2014

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1036/1097-8542.YB140385

The commercial use of nuclear power began in 1957 with the 60-MWe (megawatts of electric power) Shippingport reactor. Less than 15 years later, most new commercial plants built in the United States had capacities nearly 20 times larger, a trend that continues today worldwide. Currently, the only new plant designs available on the world market are in the 1100–1600-MWe range, including several designs from France, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Russia, and the United States. During the past few years, a number of reactor designers have turned to develop a new generation of commercial nuclear power plants with much smaller capacities. Commonly designated as small modular reactors (SMRs), they are generally characterized by having an electrical output of less than 300 MWe, are substantially fabricated in a factory and transported to a site for installation into a fixed building structure, and operated in combination with one or more identical reactor modules.

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