SMRS & ADVANCED REACTORS | INPRO
They are of particular interest for oil processing in Texas. “They want to be able to take these plants and move them to where the oil wells are and be able to move them around.” Floating nuclear power plants are also a transportable
form of nuclear power. “I know that countries that have a limited land space, like Singapore, are interested in having these floating nuclear power plants.” He noted that companies are interested in these small plants as well because they don’t produce as much electricity as some SMRs or a large NPP and could be used to power specific systems or locations. “You could use one to power a factory, for instance, or even just a single piece of equipment. It’s very, very popular also for remote locations where currently they have to bring in large amounts of diesel.” Thanh Mai Vu, a cost-free expert and nuclear engineer
Argentina was one of the first 10 nations to join INPRO when it was officially launched in May 2001. Source: NEA
● THFC (Thorium Fuel Cycles): This examined the potential of thorium-based fuel cycles.
● COOL: This investigated challenges related to using liquid metal and molten salt coolants for high- temperature reactors.
Key ongoing collaborative projects include: ● FRAMES (Framework for Modelling Energy Systems) a tool
for modelling national and regional energy scenarios, focusing on nuclear and renewable energy integration.
● ASENES SMR – a study evaluating deployment scenarios and success factors for small modular reactors (SMRs).
● INPRO Fusion Study – an inter-disciplinary study to identify sustainability gaps in the future deployment of fusion and integrated fusion-fission systems.
● Nuclear-Hydrogen Systems, which analyses impediments to using nuclear power for large-scale hydrogen production.
These projects are primarily funded by contributions
from participating members, enabling countries, especially those with smaller R&D budgets, to benefit from shared results and tools. Carolynn Scherer explained that the FRAMES tool helps member states look at various scenarios with different energy sources. “What’s really critical with this one is it works with intermittent renewables and other renewables, and how to look at systems that are efficient for countries and produce power when they need it. And I think this is going to become more critical in the future,” she said. “We have a lot of member states that are becoming more
reliant on energy sources that are renewable. However, many of those are intermittent… and you need to have a sustainable mix. And FRAMES helps people look at that sustainability, especially with respect to wind and solar. I think that’s very important. We worked with a lot of member states to get that tool ready for launch.”
Next steps for INPRO INPRO is also currently looking at SMRs. Keith Fox, a US cost- free expert is working on transportable nuclear power plants. “The unique and interesting design of these is they’re made in a factory. and then potentially fuelled in the factory, delivered to the site that’s been prepared for them, and then they would be brought up to full power at that site. They are relocatable so you can move them around to different sites,” he told NEI.
44 | May 2026 |
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from Vietnam told NEI that INPRO is also developing a collaborative project to assess the sustainability for fossil fuel to nuclear power plant transition using INPRO’s tools. She said more than 20 members were interested in participating. “We have to finalise the term of reference and then we will start the project in early 2026,” she said. Motivations for countries to consider this vary and include concerns about air pollution and ageing coal plants. While the US and European countries have experience with nuclear power, others, such as those in Southeast Asia, are newcomers and have no idea how to start. She explained that INPRO can help with strategic planning and that probably the transition would involve SMRs because of grid compatibility. INPRO expert Mikhail Khorochev, who was involved in developing the original INPRO Methodology, told NEi that INPRO was now finalising the reports of two interdisciplinary studies - on future fusion plants with respect to legal and institutional issues, and on nuclear hydrogen systems. “We are also looking at some regional cooperation with respect to the back end of the nuclear fuel cycle. Ideas are being floated for international centres for reprocessing and so on and in future we plan to consider them in depth. Maybe this is also one of the solutions that can be added to the sustainability of nuclear energy systems. It could be national, regional and maybe even global.” Scherer also stressed the importance of capacity building.
“We do workshops and schools throughout the world. We do a tremendous amount of work with the participants of the classes helping them to utilise our tools and our strategies for developing strategic plans for energy. Hopefully it includes nuclear, but if they do the assessments and nuclear is not economical, then they don’t have to include it in their plan, but we help them with that total assessment.” In 2025 workshops were held in South Korea, Hungary and at the International Centre for Theoretical Physics in Trieste, Italy. “We have an advisory service,” she added. “If they reach
out to us and ask for assistance with their energy planning, we go and help them. We work with them to decide what their objectives are and then we put together a package that includes our tools that would help them solve their problem. We provide workshops in the implementation of our tools and then we continue to help them afterwards with the actual implementation. According to Khorochev: INPRO is about innovations in
technical and institutional areas and about sustainability. Over the years, INPRO has been acknowledged as a focal point for interdisciplinary considerations of nuclear energy development. INPRO has set up six areas for consideration in the infrastructure methodology and we bring together in
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