The IAEA hosted an international conference on SMRs in October 2024. This unique event brought together industry, regulators and researchers. With over 1000 participants from 95 countries and 17 international organizations, this conference highlighted the important role the IAEA continues to play as nuclear power plants evolve. SMRs are the future of nuclear power production.
Diana Mautner Markhof
12 January 2025
The IAEA hosted an international conference in Vienna from 21 to 25 October 2024: “International Conference on Small Modular Reactors and their Application”. This conference was opened by the IAEA Director General, Rafael Grossi, and brought together global leaders in SMR science, technology, safety, and production. Many countries and companies highlighted their SMR industry.
Over 1000 participants from 95 countries and 17 international organizations and non-governmental organizations participated in the event which included 44 technical sessions. The four main topics of the conference were SMR design, technology and fuel cycle; legislative and regulatory frameworks; safety, security and safeguards; and considerations to facilitate deployment of SMRs. In addition, five plenary sessions, four side were held.
By hosting this conference, the IAEA continues to play an important role in promoting SMR technology. This conference offered many opportunities for experts from industry, research and the UN to exchange experiences, ideas and to make valuable connections.
Participants at the IAEA international conference included: Mirion Technologies (a leader in advanced radiation safety), the World Nuclear Association (an advocate for nuclear power and a partner of the IAEA); Last Energy (offering scalable nuclear energy solutions), Rosatom SMR Technologies (Russia’s nuclear organization active in selling reactors and services to many countries); NTS (a specialist in transport and logistic solutions in the nuclear industry);CTU (Czech Technical University, Prague); Rolls Royce SMRs; China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC)) and China Atomic Energy Authority; Westinghouse Nuclear Power; Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Co.; China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC); MoltexFlex and Seaborg Technologies.
GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy (GEH), a participant at the IAEA conference, highlighted the BWRX-300 reactor. GEH is a global leader in developing boiling water nuclear reactors and SMRs. The GEH plant will begin operations in Canada in 2028, and a plant in Poland will be operational in 2029.
SMR technology is a more flexible and efficient approach to nuclear power. Small modular reactors have a capacity up to 300 MWe per unit. Since they are small, their construction time is short. Moreover, they can be deployed close to human settlements where large NPPs (nuclear power plants) have no access. They have low system costs and a longer lifetime than NPPs. Currently the most advanced SMRs are used in the production of electricity and heat for municipal needs and energy intensive industries.
Artificial Intelligence has an enormous energy footprint. It involves one of the most energy-intensive computing tasks. In 2023, data centers in the US consumed 4.4% of all US electricity—a number that could triple by 2028. SMR technology could be part of the answer to cope with the ever-increasing energy requirements of in AI applications.
Converting existing conventional plants to NPPs rather than closing them was also a focus of the IAEA conference. Nuclear is the ‚other‘ green energy, since NPPs and SMRs do not emit carbon dioxide, nitrogen or sulfur compounds during their energy production process.
SMRs can increase economic competitiveness and boost job creation. They will reduce the carbon footprint of countries and be vital for replacing fossil fuel power plants.
China and the Russian Federation have SMRs in operation and many other IAEA Member States are in the process of constructing SMRs for clean energy production.
On 4 April 2023, the European Commission published a Declaration on EU SMR 2030. The Commission stressed the need for SMR deployment in the EU to complement existing power plants and increase energy independence.
