What is a small modular reactor?

A small modular reactor is an emergent class of nuclear fission reactors featuring a modular design and an electrical power output under 300 megawatts. These systems are intended to be built in factories, transported as prefabricated modules, and scaled up by adding units rather than increasing reactor size. They are drawing significant interest from technology companies seeking reliable power for data centers.

What we know

• Small modular reactors produce less than 300 megawatts of electrical power per module. [1, 2, 3]
• Many small modular reactor designs are built in factories and transported to sites as prefabricated modules. [2]
• Technology companies like Google and Microsoft have shown strong interest in using small modular reactors to power data centers. [2]
• Reactors with a capacity below 10 megawatts are classified as nuclear microreactors. [2]

Where to go next

• a case in pointWhat are examples of small modular reactor designs?
• how it workedHow do passive safety features work in nuclear reactors?
• the bigger pictureWhat is a nuclear reactor?
• compared withHow are nuclear microreactors different from standard SMRs?
• what caused itWhy are technology companies investing in nuclear energy?
• an unexpected connectionHow are tech giants driving nuclear power adoption?Major software and cloud computing corporations are turning directly to nuclear fission developers to secure dedicated off-grid power for artificial intelligence workloads.

Sources

• [1]small modular reactor (Wikidata Q7543123) · CC0 1.0
• [2]Small modular reactor · CC BY-SA 4.0
• [3]List of small modular reactor designs · CC BY-SA 4.0
• [4]Bharat Small Modular Reactor · CC BY-SA 4.0
• [5]BWRX-300 · CC BY-SA 4.0