Fission System • Size + Deployment Category
Small Modular Reactor
Small modular reactor, or SMR, is a size and deployment category rather than one reactor-physics family. Designs span light-water, gas-cooled, liquid-metal, and salt-based systems, with different fuels, spectra, conversion cycles, and licensing positions.
Up to 300 MWe per ModuleMultiple Reactor FamiliesEarly DeploymentFactory-Oriented Delivery
Phase 4 • Page-Specific Technical Summary
What this reactor category means
System definition
A reactor module within the IAEA small-reactor range, intended to gain schedule, quality, or scaling advantages through modular manufacture and deployment.
A reactor module within the IAEA small-reactor range, intended to gain schedule, quality, or scaling advantages through modular manufacture and deployment.
Intended applications
Grid generation, cogeneration, district energy, industrial heat, desalination, replacement of retiring thermal plants, and isolated-grid support.
Grid generation, cogeneration, district energy, industrial heat, desalination, replacement of retiring thermal plants, and isolated-grid support.
Public boundary
Technology classification, system relationships, maturity, and engineering challenges only. No design parameters, calculations, control logic, procedures, procurement data, or build instructions.
Technology classification, system relationships, maturity, and engineering challenges only. No design parameters, calculations, control logic, procedures, procurement data, or build instructions.
Industry Example • Integral PWR SMR
NuScale Power Module
This is the NuScale reactor in our list: Small Modular Reactor is the deployment category; integral pressurized-water reactor is the underlying technology.
Vendor-published, nonproprietary February 2026 data. Values describe the NuScale Power Module—not every SMR.
System Architecture • Public-Level Component Map
Major Components
A second view separates the principal system functions for Small Modular Reactor. The rendering and callouts are conceptual and intended for public engineering orientation.
- Reactor module
- Containment or confinement structure
- Primary heat-transport system
- Heat exchanger or steam-generation system
- Power or useful-heat conversion
- Electrical, cooling, and control interfaces
Component boundaries vary by vendor, plant arrangement, coolant choice, power-conversion cycle, site constraints, and licensing basis.
Phase 4 • Concise Comparison
Engineering comparison
Varies by design: light water, gas, liquid metal, molten salt, or other qualified heat-transport media.
May be thermal, epithermal, or fast; SMR does not determine the neutron spectrum.
Development, licensing, construction, and limited early deployment coexist across different designs and countries.
Incremental capacity additions, smaller grids, modular expansion, and power-and-heat applications.
First-of-a-kind cost, licensing, supply-chain repeatability, module transport, construction learning, staffing, safeguards, waste, and demonstrating fleet economics.
Application Context
Where the family fits
Incremental Grid Capacity
Add capacity in modules rather than committing to one very large generating unit.
Power + Process Heat
Support electricity, district energy, desalination, hydrogen, or industrial-heat studies where the selected design is suitable.
Brownfield Energy Transition
Evaluate reuse of transmission, cooling, and skilled-workforce assets at retiring generation sites.
10-Phase Reactor Program • Phase 2
Standardized fission technical specification
Standardized public-safe fields support comparison across every fission and fusion family. Values are intentionally qualitative; licensing data, dimensions, operating windows, calculations, control logic, and build instructions remain offline.
Technology-dependent: water, gas, liquid metal, or salt
Technology-dependent
Technology-dependent; SMR describes size and construction format, not one fuel
Single or multi-module small-reactor plant
Technology-dependent electricity, heat, or cogeneration system
First deployments, licensing, demonstrations, and active development
Modularity does not automatically reduce waste per unit energy. Waste form, enrichment, burnup, decommissioning, and repository needs depend on the underlying reactor and fuel cycle.
Specification boundary: Family-level technology classification and lifecycle context—not a vendor datasheet, safety analysis, procurement specification, or construction package.
Ten-Phase Reactor Program · Phase 5
Safety, licensing and public-trust boundary
Underlying reactor hazards plus multi-module interactions, shared systems, staffing and human factors, source-term evidence, passive-feature validation, underground or compact siting, and module replacement.
U.S. advanced-power candidate: Parts 50 and 52 remain available, and the NRC issued Part 53 as an additional risk-informed, technology-inclusive pathway. The exact design, fuel, mission, and site control the route.
Apply nuclear-material control and accounting, physical protection, cybersecurity, transport security, insider-risk controls, and international safeguards as applicable to the exact material and jurisdiction. Do not publish Safeguards Information or adversary-useful detail.
Eligible SMR, non-light-water, and non-power facilities may use the performance-based 10 CFR 50.160 framework. Emergency-planning scope and zone are consequence-informed and design-specific—not automatically the site boundary.
May say the family has a defined operating or research history and can be evaluated through an applicable licensing pathway. State the exact maturity and unresolved design-specific gates.
Do not claim inherently safe, meltdown-proof, waste-free, proliferation-proof, walk-away, unguarded, zero-emergency-zone, automatically cheaper, or licensed because a related reactor operated.
Classification only: This is not a safety finding, licensing opinion, emergency plan, security plan, or legal determination. Exact obligations belong to the applicable regulator and project authority.