INSIGHT: Small nuclear gaining ground as power provider for industry and the grid

LONDON (ICIS)–Small-scale nuclear fusion reactors could provide much needed power for the chemical industry as the transition is made towards cleaner and greener production technologies.

Dow has signed a joint development agreement with X energy for a small modular reactor (SMR) at one of its US Gulf Coast sites. It would be the first grid-scale nuclear reactor for an industrial site in North America the partners have said, and it would enable Dow to take a major step in reducing carbon emissions and the carbon footprint of Dow products for customers.

The OECD’s Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) highlighted this week that there is substantial momentum towards commercialisation of various SMR designs globally. It has released an SMR Dashboard as a tool to help decision-makers navigate this complex area of new technology.

Stakeholder acceptance of new small-scale nuclear power production is critical and is not likely to be easily won. Dow has been incentivised by the funds made available through the US Inflation Reduction Act for the development of SMRs. An advanced SMR was deployed in Russia and over two years ago the International Atomic Energy Agency said it had catalogued more than 70 SMR designs under development or construction in 18 countries.

The first edition of the NEA SMR Dashboard tracks 21 SMR designs towards first deployment, the NEA says, and will help policymakers make informed decisions about the future.

There is little doubt that nuclear power offered at this scale is a potential game changer in the race to net zero. SMR technologies could be deployed for on and off grid power production, for desalination and large-scale water treatment. One current project in Canada is linked to the production of blue hydrogen.

Whether we are heading back to the 1960s when prospects for nuclear power generation appeared so bright, however, is questionable.

Technically, policy makers can be overwhelmed by the variety of designs on offer. The NEA says its tool also looks beyond technical feasibility and the technology readiness of each SMR design to track progress across parameters such as licensing readiness, siting, financing supply chain, societal engagement and fuel availability.

“The next five to ten years is going to be pivotal in terms of getting these new technologies to market,” says William Magwood IV, NEA Director-General.

The EU’s stance on SMRs and the deployment of new nuclear power alongside renewables comes to the fore this week with the expected release of the European Commission’s proposals on the centrepieces of the Green Deal Industrial Plan, the Net Zero Industry Act and the Critical Raw Materials Act.

The two acts are expected to facilitate the development of clean power and technologies in the EU, and have arisen as part of the EU’s response to the incentives offered under the US IRA. Whether new nuclear is included in the proposals, and to what extent, remains to be seen.

For the much longer term, the drive for usable and scalable nuclear fusion technologies is making progress and Italy’s Eni was far-sighted enough last week to commit further funds to nuclear fusion development.

The energy giant has a long-standing relationship with Commonwealth Fusion Systems, a spin-out from MIT (the Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and has just signed a Collaboration Framework Agreement with, it says the aim of accelerating the industrialisation of fusion energy. It will provide global engineering and project management support to a series of projects for CFS and the industrial-scale development of fusion energy.

CFS’s SPARC project could become the world’s first magnetic confinement pilot plant with net production of fusion energy. It is in construction and expected to be operational by 2025. A plant called ARC will be the first commercial power plant capable of feeding electricity to the grid, the partners say, and is projected to be operational in the early 2030s.

“We will see the first CFS power plant based on magnetic confinement fusion at the beginning of the next decade, with then almost two decades ahead to deploy the technology and achieve the energy transition goals by 2050, Eni’s CEO Claudio Descalzi said.

Insight by Nigel Davis