This podcast explores how passive safety design is revolutionizing the manufacturing of Small Modular Reactors (SMRs). Traditionally, complex active safety systems in large nuclear plants made factory production challenging due to their thousands of components and need for extensive on-site integration. In contrast, SMRs, exemplified by NuScale's design, utilize physics-based passive systems that operate without external power or intervention, drastically reducing component counts and enabling factory manufacturing. This shift is already evident through manufacturing partnerships with companies like Doosan Enerbility and BWXT Canada, which are leveraging their existing expertise, including from naval nuclear and aerospace industries, to produce SMR components. The podcast highlights how this new approach simplifies assembly, improves quality control, and offers significant cost reduction potential as production scales, marking a transition of SMRs from concept to industrial reality.
