Europe Bets Big on Small Modular Reactors. Here's How NuScale Power and Oklo Will Benefit.
The European Investment Bank is ramping up investment in small modular nuclear reactors, or SMRs.
Europe is placing significant bets on small modular reactors (SMRs) to meet growing energy demands. NuScale Power and Oklo are two companies at the forefront of this emerging SMR industry. SMRs offer several advantages over conventional nuclear plants. They can be constructed more rapidly, typically taking only a few years compared to the decade-long timelines of large-scale nuclear facilities.
Although SMRs generally have higher capital costs per megawatt, their reduced construction time can result in lower overall upfront investment expenses.
The SMR concept has been around for decades, but only two systems have been commercialized thus far - one in Russia and another in China. Both of these systems are relatively small in terms of generating capacity. However, a new era for SMRs is dawning as the artificial intelligence (AI) industry requires rapid power generation to support the scaling of trillions of dollars worth of data center infrastructure.
Nuclear power can provide significant amounts of stable baseload power with minimal refueling needs, making SMRs a highly attractive option in the current environment.
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