The cost of small modular reactors remains very high

While SMRs are being presented in the United States as one of the solutions for coping with the expected growth in electricity consumption linked to developments in AI, many experts point out that the technology has not yet reached maturity. There are only three reactors in operation in the world, in Russia and China. In these two countries, construction costs have increased by a factor of 4 or 5 compared with initial estimates.
The production cost of SMRs is estimated at $182/MWh by 2030, compared with $133/MWh for conventional reactors, $126/MWh for combined-cycle gas power plants and $84/MWh for wind and photovoltaic power coupled with batteries.