I guess this was posted on HN due to the recent announcement of NuScale's SMR approval by the NRC.
While I'm rooting for them and for nuclear energy in general, Rolls-Royce's SMR stretches a bit the concept of SMR. Their SMR is supposed to deliver 470 MW of electicity, which is close to what a full nuclear power reactor produces. For example there are lots of CANDU reactors around the world that produce 600 MW.
NuScale's design is much smaller, about a tenth as large as RR's proposed design. The whole idea of SMR is that being small they can be build at a much lower cost, so 10 small SMR will cost much less than a reactor that is 10 times as large.
While I'm rooting for them and for nuclear energy in general, Rolls-Royce's SMR stretches a bit the concept of SMR. Their SMR is supposed to deliver 470 MW of electicity, which is close to what a full nuclear power reactor produces. For example there are lots of CANDU reactors around the world that produce 600 MW.
NuScale's design is much smaller, about a tenth as large as RR's proposed design. The whole idea of SMR is that being small they can be build at a much lower cost, so 10 small SMR will cost much less than a reactor that is 10 times as large.