Education and Training Series #43: Overview of Small Modular Reactor Technology Development
Part of a webinar series hosted by the GIF Education and Training Working Group since 2016.
Who should attend?
Policymakers, industry professionals, regulators, researchers, students, the general public.
About the "GIF Education and Training" Webinars
These webinars, organised by the GIF Education and Training Working Group are streamed live monthly. The recordings and slide decks are accessible after the webinar on this website. These webinars cover a very broad range of technical and policy related topics. At the end of 2023 they have been viewed by more than 15000 people (approximately half of the views during the live streams and the other half views being of the archives on the public GIF website). In total, the GIF webinars have reached Generation IV enthusiasts, scientists, and engineers in more than 80 countries.
These webinars are organised and hosted by the GIF Education and Training Working Group (ETWG).
About this Webinar
Nuclear electricity generation started with prototype- and test reactors of a small size and low power. Relatively quickly these were replaced by increasingly larger nuclear power plants due to increased needs, economy of scale and limited available sites. For several years the interest in small modular reactors (SMRs) has increased with over 50 concept designs now under development. The IAEA defines SMRs as advanced nuclear power plants with one or more individual modules that each produce electric power up to 300 MWe. A module may be built in factories and shipped to nuclear sites for installation and added as the need arises. All advanced technologies are included (water cooled, Gen-IV systems and micro-reactors). SMRs claim enhanced passive safety features, simplified design and operations, economy by numbers and the flexibility in hybrid energy systems and non-electric applications. The webinar highlights the attractive features of SMRs, major challenges, the current status of SMR technology and near-term deployment plans.
Presentation made during the webinar
Meet the presenter
Mr. Frederik Reitsma is the Team Leader for SMRs in the Nuclear Power Technology Development Section of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna. He joined the IAEA nearly 7 years ago and manages, coordinates and supervises the projects in this area. He provides technical and program leadership by identifying key future trends and technology development needs in cooperation with Member States. Previously, he was head of the High Temperature Gas Cooled Reactor project. Frederik holds a master’s degree in Reactor Science and has published more than 90 papers. He has been invited as a speaker to many international workshops and conferences and led several international cooperation projects (such as OECD/NEA and GIF). He is a reactor physicist by training with extensive experience in SMRs and HTGRs nuclear engineering and analysis with core neutronics design and safety as focus areas. He worked on the South African PBMR project in different leadership positions for 13 years. For the first 10 years of his career, he contributed to the OSCAR reactor calculational system development and performed cycle and reload analysis.