DISINFORMATION: Small modular reactors, tested only in Romania

NARRATIVE: Romania is forced by the West to experiment with dangerous nuclear technologies, which do not work.

CONTEXT: Because of excessive pollution and the accelerated pace of climate change caused by it, an increasing number of states are adopting policies to replace technologies that use burnt fossil fuels to obtain energy with non-polluting ones that use natural sources (sunlight, wind power or water) or low-carbon alternatives, such as nuclear energy.

One of the technologies for obtaining nuclear energy is represented by modular reactors:  SMR – Small Modular Reactor - with a capacity of up to 300 MW per unit, which represents approximately one third of the generation capacity of traditional nuclear reactors. The main advantages of SMRs are the much-reduced dimensions compared to a conventional nuclear reactor and the possibility that the systems and their components can be assembled from the factory and transported as a unit to a site for installation. In addition, at least in theory, SMRs cost less, take less time to build, and require less fuel. At the same time, they can be located in areas that are unsuitable for large nuclear power plants and are less demanding in terms of water-cooling systems, which can be a problem in the context of climate change.

Worldwide, more and more countries are beginning to consider the fact that small modular reactors are the future in the field of nuclear energy, and SMR developers have already begun the "fight" to conquer the markets that want to implement such projects. Romania became part of a consortium for the development of fast lead-cooled SMRs  in November 2023, along with Belgium, Italy and the American company Westinghouse Electric.

The project is in the research phase, and the first results are expected towards the end of this decade. At the same time, in Romania, the  SMR project in Doicești, Dâmboviţa, which has entered the second phase, continues, and government officials claim that it could provide energy even in 2027, despite the financial failure suffered by the manufacturing company in the USA. Other countries extremely interested in installing SMRs are Great Britain, Sweden, Poland, USA, Canada, France, Russia and China.

In the summer of 2022, Veridica dismantled another fake news about the SMR technology , promoted by the same nationalist publication.

PURPOSE: To undermine people’s trust in the authorities, to increase anti-Western feelings, to provoke and amplify social tensions.

WHY THE NARRATIVE IS FALSE: The negative opinion of the National Counterintelligence and Security Agency of Poland is advisory and does not imply a ban on the installation of SMRs on Polish territory, a fact reinforced even by the decision of the Ministry of Climate and Environment in Warsaw to approve  the building of 6 power plants based on SMRs  produced by the US-based GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy company.

The fact that NuScale has canceled its project in Idaho, the US  is not related to any technological failure. The decision was prompted by  the huge increase in implementation costs , from $5.3 billion to $9.3 billion, due to the increase in supply chain costs, interest rates and inflation. At the same time, the company was also accused of fraud and illegal business practices in another case, being suspected of being involved in a  fake contract, with a blockchain data center service provider,  worth 37 billions of dollars.

As mentioned above, Romania is not the only country experimenting with the SMR technology; several countries are funding research in the field.

Thus, as early as May 2021, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy of the  United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland started the procedure to assess  the safety, security and environmental protection of a nuclear power plant based on SMR, and following the analysis, concluded that the project was ready to enter the process of endorsement by the authorities. At the same time, Rolls-Royce partnered with Westinghouse to  develop a fuel project for SMRs  and also partnered with Britain's National Physical Laboratory to analyze the safety of their automated reactor.

France is researching the development of an SMR model that hopes to become the European leader in SMR technology. For now, the project is in an early phase, with the developers setting 2030 as the target for building the first functional prototype.

In Canada, the SMRs produced by GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy have completed the first two phases of the assessment process by the Nuclear Safety Commission, , the American company also announcing the start of their approval process in Estonia, after the agreement in principle obtained from the Polish authorities.

A high interest in the development of SMRs also exists in Russia, where the Nuclear Regulatory Authority granted the license for the building of the first small modular reactor  in the country, in the Republic of Sakha, in the arctic north of the country, but also in China, the country that issued the final approval for a small modular reactor to be  installed in the country's southern Hainan province.