States, high technology costs, slow demand growth, and competition from natural gas and renewables have dampened the prospects of building new, large nuclear reactors.

Georgia is currently building the only new conventional nuclear power plant in the country, which is five years behind schedule and nearly double its original cost estimate. All other plans to build large nuclear facilities in the U.S. have been abandoned for economic reasons.

Re-establishing an economically competitive domestic nuclear industry in America will require taking a different technology approach. Small and micro reactors offer such a solution, but the sector struggles with regulatory barriers and a lack of construction experience, according to a new paper from The Breakthrough Institute, the R Street Institute and Clearpath. //

Small and micro reactors, defined in the paper as reactors under 10 megawatts thermal, come with less risk than their larger counterparts. They rely on economies of multiples rather than economies of scale, which makes their design simpler and upfront costs more manageable. They also target niche applications — including off-grid and industrial — allowing for the technology to compete in the near term, without going up against mature generation technologies in wholesale markets.

These units are two to three thousandth the size of a typical commercial reactor, with the ability to supply electricity to around 2,000 households. This is significantly smaller than the next generation of research reactors being tested around the country. NuScale Power, for instance, builds 60-megawatt units designed to operate in six or 12 packs. Because of its size, micro reactor technology should be licensed in a process that recognizes “the very minimal risks such tiny reactors pose,” the paper argues.