The Prospects of Small Modular Reactor Development and Application in China Based on the User Requirements

Abstract The use of nuclear energy is one of the greatest discoveries of the twentieth century. After more than half a century of development, nuclear energy has become an important part of the world’s energy system. Small Modular Reactors (SMR) have the characteristics of small size, light weight and strong application flexibility, and can be used in various scenarios such as power generation, heating and seawater desalination. Since the beginning of the 21st century in China, in response to the needs of heating in cold areas, power supply in remote areas and seawater desalination in offshore areas, major domestic nuclear energy enterprises and universities have developed various types of small reactors with different power levels and technical characteristics. The development and application of small modular reactors should first consider the needs of potential users and should be sufficiently competitive in terms of nuclear safety and economics. From the perspective of technical maturity, industrial manufacturing base and current actual needs, small PWRs have obvious advantages, especially some advanced integrated small PWR models have relatively perfect engineering implementation conditions, and can be applied in a short period of time. However, metal cooling reactors and steam cooled reactors (except HTR-PM) are still in the stage of technology research and development, and some key technologies have not yet been fully broken through, and long-term technical research is still needed. In this paper, the applicable scenarios of various types of small modular reactors from the perspective of user needs based on the characteristics of different technology types are summarized, and put forward the need to continuously optimize the design scheme of small reactors and enhance their market competitiveness, which can provide a reference for the development and application of small modular reactors.