Accelerating the deployment of SMRs in Canada: The importance of intermediaries

• Focuses on the role of intermediaries in accelerating the adoption of a ‘ready to use’ but controversial clean energy technology: small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs). • Demonstrates the role of intermediaries in creating and elaborating legitimating storylines in support of the technology. • An original “cooperative” storyline used to move SMRs onto the policy agenda gives way to competing storylines as intermediaries create variations in the narrative in support of SMR designs or applications. • Intermediaries must position themselves carefully with respect to these new developments if accelerated deployment has a chance of success. • Government actors showed strong network management during agenda setting but may need to continue to play a more prominent role if divisions among the other actors continue to emerge in the SMR network. Much of the research on technological innovation, especially in the context of sustainability transitions, has focused on the early stages of innovation. Much less work has been done on successful acceleration of technological change after pre-development and take-off. Filling this gap is important for improving the chances of successful deployment of small modular reactors (SMRs). Recent work on sustainability transitions has focused on the importance of "intermediaries". These are actors and platforms that sustain the momentum of transitions by linking actors, activities, and resources. Their role in the acceleration phase is less well understood and SMRs provide a compelling case study of the challenges. This paper uses document, web, and interview data to analyze the role of intermediaries in Canadian SMR deployment, focusing particularly on the intermediaries needed for successful social innovation; identifies gaps; and evaluates the role of public policy in supporting the development of these critical relationships.