CSNI Technical Opinion Paper No. 21

While there is a growing interest in the deployment of small modular reactors (SMRs) as a promising option to help mitigate climate change, further international efforts are needed to accelerate the development and safety demonstration of the innovative technologies that are being considered for many of these SMRs. This publication presents the actions taken by the NEA Committee on the Safety of Nuclear Installations (CSNI) and its expert group on SMRs to define the areas of future CSNI research and safety assessment work needed to support sound safety demonstrations for SMRs. The proposed activities address four areas: support for regulatory harmonisation, common safety issues of interest for different designs, experimental campaigns, and benchmarking for computer code validation and verification.