Think tank calls for European countries to form alliance to advance SMR deployment

Recently, the renowned think tank Clean Air Task Force (CATF) released a series of dedicated policy reports, noting that although Europe has improved its collaborative development of Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) compared with last year, governments are still significantly lagging behind technology developers in actual deployment actions, and there is an urgent need to form an alliance to pursue a deployment model based on unit clusters.

Marina Qvist, head of CATF's advanced nuclear program, pointed out that current industry leadership is mainly in the hands of technology developers, who have determined through precise calculations that the commercial success of SMRs is highly dependent on large-scale cluster construction and supporting transmission networks. To this end, CATF urged European countries in its latest report to adopt a unit-based cooperative approach, with the first batch planning to build 5 to 8 gigawatts of SMR installed capacity, so as to reduce manufacturing costs and help countries smoothly achieve emission reduction and energy independence goals through innovative financing tools.

Against the backdrop of European countries accelerating their layout of advanced nuclear energy, countries such as the Czech Republic have explicitly planned to advance the deployment of Rolls-Royce SMRs. However, in the face of regulatory and supply chain fragmentation challenges brought about by dispersed advancement across multiple countries, industry experts believe that only by breaking down national barriers, achieving cross-border policy alignment and unified fleet-based operations can the scale cost advantages of SMRs be truly unlocked.

The publication of this series of CATF reports has sounded the alarm for European policymakers to accelerate the implementation of nuclear energy policies. As the EU and its member states gradually recognize the key role of advanced nuclear energy in safeguarding long-term energy security, building a regional SMR development alliance is gradually becoming an important policy consensus for promoting the low-carbon transition of the European continent.