The Reactor Around the Corner: Understanding Advanced Nuclear Energy Futures
Nuclear energy, a source of stable, carbon-free electricity, has long been considered essential for meeting growing global energy demands. Amid the climate emergency, geopolitical instability, and energy insecurity, it has recently regained attention as a key solution to these issues. However, nuclear power remains controversial due to its history of severe accidents, the risks of proliferation and potential use of nuclear material in weapons, challenges in managing long-lived nuclear waste, and high construction costs for nuclear power facilities. Advanced nuclear energy technologies, particularly small modular reactors (SMRs), promise to solve the problems of nuclear power through improved designs. Governments, industries, and publics have shown increasing interest in SMRs and other advanced reactors as central to solving the world’s energy crisis and have been supporting their rapid development.
This report first gives an overview of the global history and regulatory environment of nuclear energy and outlines the current landscape of advanced nuclear energy development. Then we analyze the social, environmental, ethical, equity, economic, and geopolitical implications of SMRs and other advanced reactors. We anticipate that SMRs, while having the potential to benefit countries and communities, are likely to have significant negative social impacts without robust governance frameworks. These include:
- Entrenching global disparities
- Privileging markets over the public good
- Overlooking local and Indigenous knowledge
- Intensifying environmental injustices
- Abandoning promises of local development and empowerment
Building on these insights, we provide policy recommendations for the governance of SMRs and the uranium supply chain to maximize the potential benefits and minimize the likely harms of the widespread adoption of these new nuclear energy technologies.
Join us for a live webinar conversation with the authors—Nora Lewis, Txai Sibley, Nicholas Stubblefield, Michael Redmond, Molly Kleinman, Shobita Parthasarathy, and Denia Djokić—to discuss research findings, as well as policy recommendations for the governance of SMRs and the uranium supply chain.
