Long-Term Nuclear Security and Small Modular Reactors

Work conducted at the Center for International and Security Studies at Maryland (CISSM) has advanced a vision for small modular reactors (SMR) with a tightly controlled fuel cycle. This involves SMRs with sealed fuel compartments that would not give users access to nuclear materials. In addition, these SMRs would be produced in a “hub and spoke” arrangement with a small number of manufacturing facilities worldwide and end of life recovery of the modules for recycling and disposal. Critically, this vision for SMRs has the potential to enhance proliferation resistance compared to conventional reactors designs and deployment approaches. However, there has been little effort to evaluate SMR designs, manufacturing arrangements and fuel cycle practices on the proliferation risks for widespread deployment. Here, we develop an expert elicitation to compare the proliferation resistance of different potential nuclear energy generation deployment scenarios