The World Economic Forum has partnered with stakeholders across the nuclear ecosystem to develop a Framework to Accelerate the Deployment of Advanced Nuclear and Small Modular Reactors (SMRs). This framework is a tool that can align stakeholders on key actions and strategies within nine priority areas to accelerate deployment. The framework has been co-developed with stakeholders from across the nuclear ecosystem including experts from large energy-consuming industries, financiers, reactor vendors, supply chain businesses, utilities, government organizations, non-profits/NGOs and academia.
The World Economic Forum, in collaboration with Accenture, Terra Praxis, and other stakeholders across the clean energy ecosystem, has released a framework to accelerate the deployment of advanced nuclear and SMRs to help meet rising global demand for clean energy. The publication A Collaborative Framework for Accelerating Advanced Nuclear and Small Modular Reactor Deployment serves as a tool to align stakeholders on actions within nine priority areas.
Critically, the Framework makes the case that these large energy users, governments, and investors need energy services that fit within the fast and predictable asset deployment process that industrial energy users use today. SMRs are compact, reliable, versatile, require minimal land, and have potential for standardized mass-manufacture production that can achieve the scale of deployment required to meet many clean power, heat and clean fuel production use cases for heavy industry, data centers, and transport. SMRs can be sited within the existing footprint of existing coal plants, or co-located with refineries, steel, chemical, or aluminum plants – to directly and competitively – replace fossil fuels by supplying heat, power, steam, or hydrogen to enable continued operation of existing assets, including transmission, without emissions.
Both public and private financing sources will be needed to support first-of-a-kind (FOAK) SMR units, which are anticipated to be deployed in the 2030 timeframe. Unlocking this investment will require purpose-built products that offer high investor confidence, at a defined cost, competitive with fossil fuels, and on schedule. Key stakeholders are already coming together to respond to these opportunities, improve risk-sharing across project stakeholders, and implement innovative strategies for fast, low-cost, repeatable deployment at scale.
The Framework is intended to be adaptable to these different stakeholders, use cases, and geographies. It could also be applied to other advanced clean energy technologies that require a systemic approach to unlock progress, such as geothermal and long-duration energy storage.
Learn more about the collaboration between Terra Praxis and WEF »