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UPENN REPORT: TARIFFS LIKELY NAIL IN COFFIN OF U.S. SMALL NUCLEAR REACTORS.

Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) are a “false promise” for powering
proposed artificial intelligence (AI) data centers nationwide, according to
a new report published today by the University of Pennsylvania’s (UPenn), Dr. Joseph Romm, a former Acting Assistant Secretary of Energy.

The research report, “Smaller nuclear reactors (SMRs) are a costly dead end,
especially for AI, and Trump’s tariffs and other policies make them even
more of a losing bet,” is an expanded version of a chapter in Dr.
Romm’s new book, “The Hype About Hydrogen: False Promises and Real
Solutions in the Race to Save the Climate” (Island Press, April 22).

The report examines recent economic developments, including the over-budget $35
billion completion of Georgia’s Vogtle plant, current and canceled SMR
proposals, and how Trump’s tariffs (and other policies) threaten the
nuclear industry. The study concludes that these factors will ultimately
doom the likelihood of new American commercial nuclear reactors playing
much of a role in meeting U.S. electricity demand needs for the foreseeable
future.

“It would be unprecedented in the history of energy for smaller
nuclear reactors to overcome not only the high cost per megawatt of large
nuclear plants but also the diseconomies of shrinking them down—and then
to somehow keep dropping in price so sharply that SMRs become such clear
marketplace winners as to make a major contribution to cutting greenhouse
gas emissions by 2050. This is especially true since SMRs show every sign
of the kind of cost escalation that has plagued larger nuclear reactors for
decades,” according to the report.

 Hastings Group 15th April 2025,
https://hastingsgroupmedia.com/SMF/041525-Romm-SMR-Dead-End-Report-news-release.pdf

April 18, 2025 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Small Modular Nuclear Reactors