Small modular reactors (SMRs) represent a new paradigm in nuclear energy. Conventional nuclear plants produce 1,000+ megawatts and cost tens of billions of dollars, taking a decade or more to build on-site. SMRs aim to change this equation by shrinking reactor designs to sizes that can be manufactured in factories and shipped to sites as completed modules, dramatically reducing construction time, financing risk, and enabling deployment in locations where large plants are impractical.
The SMR landscape includes dozens of designs at various stages of development. NuScale Power, which received the first-ever SMR design certification from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, has a light-water design producing 77 MW per module. Other notable companies include X-energy (high-temperature gas-cooled), TerraPower (sodium-cooled fast reactor backed by Bill Gates), Kairos Power (molten salt-cooled), and GE Hitachi (BWRX-300). In Canada, Ontario Power Generation is moving toward construction of GE Hitachi's BWRX-300, one of the most advanced SMR projects globally.
The resurgence of interest in SMRs is driven by the urgent need for clean, reliable baseload power — particularly to supply energy-hungry data centers and support grid decarbonization. Major tech companies including Microsoft, Google, and Amazon have signed agreements or letters of intent with SMR developers. However, significant challenges remain: no SMR has yet been built at commercial scale in the West, regulatory timelines are long, and the economics of factory production at volume remain unproven. For deeper coverage, see DeepTechIntel's nuclear section.