Data centers and energy
🔬 Supplemental Nuclear: Small Modular Reactors
Learn what small modular reactors and microreactors are, which designs exist and what each is for, where projects and Idaho National Laboratory work stood in October 2026, and how cooling water, fuel, safety rules and spent fuel storage actually work.
- 1What makes a reactor small or modularThe size lines that separate large reactors, small modular reactors and microreactors, what 'modular' really means, and why thermal and electric megawatts get mixed up in sales pitches.15 min
- 2SMR types and what each one is forLight-water, sodium-cooled, helium-cooled, salt and heat-pipe reactors, the named designs in each family, and which jobs (grid power, industrial heat, data centers, remote sites, military bases) each family is built to do.17 min
- 3Manufacturers and where each stands with regulatorsA vendor-by-vendor table of SMR and microreactor makers with their NRC, DOE or Canadian regulatory status as of October 2026, and how to check any of it yourself on nrc.gov.16 min
- 4Projects planned, deals signed and the cost recordWhere the North American SMR projects stand in October 2026, which data center and military deals are firm, what the first real cost numbers show, and the strongest case on each side.18 min
- 5SMR and microreactor work at Idaho National LaboratoryWhat is actually happening at INL in 2026: the DOME and MARVEL test beds, the Reactor Pilot Program criticality race, Aalo, Oklo's Aurora, Project Pele, HALEU recovery from EBR-II fuel and the national reactor innovation program, with dates.19 min
- 6Safety, emergency planning zones and the new NRC rulesHow passive safety is supposed to work in each SMR family, what the skeptics say, how the NRC's 2023 rule lets emergency planning zones shrink, and where Part 53 and the proposed Part 57 microreactor rule stood in October 2026.18 min
- 7Cooling options and water useWhy every reactor, including gas-cooled ones, has to throw away most of its heat, how once-through, cooling tower, pond, dry and hybrid systems compare in gallons per megawatt-hour, what dry cooling costs in lost output, and what the Kemmerer Natrium plant will draw.18 min
- 8Fuel types and the HALEU supply problemLEU pellets, HALEU metal fuel, TRISO particles, hydride fuel and fuel dissolved in salt, which reactors use each, and why the supply of high-assay low-enriched uranium is the bottleneck for most advanced designs as of October 2026.17 min
- 9Spent fuel, on-site storage and Idaho's limitsHow spent fuel from SMRs differs by fuel type, what the 2022 Stanford-led study found about SMR waste volumes, how dry cask storage works at a reactor site, and what Idaho's 1995 settlement agreement and its later amendments mean for reactors at INL.18 min