Are SMRs Available Yet?

Illustration of modular nuclear reactor units under construction beside a waterfront power site, with a large factory-built reactor module being delivered.

Yes—but barely. Small modular reactors are no longer purely future technology, but they are not yet something most utilities or data centers can simply order and connect to the grid.

The International Atomic Energy Agency lists Russia’s floating Akademik Lomonosov plant and China’s HTR-PM as operating SMR projects. Akademik Lomonosov uses two 35 MW electric reactor modules and has been in commercial operation since 2020. China’s HTR-PM entered commercial operation in 2023.

Nuclear Threat Initiative highlighted a major remaining problem in 2026: turning reactor designs and policy support into repeatable commercial deployment.

The Western market is further behind. Canada’s BWRX-300 at Darlington is now under nuclear construction, but it still needs an operating licence before fuel loading and commercial operation. In the United States, the NRC approved NuScale’s US460 design in May 2025, but that approval is not a licence to build a specific plant.

The World Nuclear Association explains which SMRs are operating, under construction, and moving through deployment.

So the answer has changed since BitcoinVersus.Tech first covered SMRs in 2024. They exist. They generate electricity. But for a U.S. data center considering SMR power, commercial availability is still measured in licensing and construction timelines—not delivery dates. The recent Texas molten-salt reactor work shows how quickly the pipeline is expanding, but most Western projects remain pre-operation.

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One response to “Are SMRs Available Yet?”

  1. […] of PJM’s new data-center registry, the DOE emergency power order, and the question of whether SMRs are actually available yet. Power generation is only half the problem; the electricity still has to reach the […]

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