Overview
- An internal review by the Environment Ministry, disclosed Monday by German media and confirmed by a spokesman, rejects public funding for small modular reactors, or SMRs, which are factory-built nuclear units.
- The paper says SMRs show no cost edge over large plants and cites Ontario’s Darlington project at €13.3 billion for four units as evidence of high specific costs.
- It argues a market will not form without massive state subsidies because factory savings only appear with mass production that is not on the horizon.
- The authors say smaller reactors do not reduce core nuclear risks and note a federal waste office’s finding that SMRs could produce more high-level waste per unit of power than today’s reactors.
- The release sharpens a policy split in Berlin, as EU leaders and German conservatives promote SMRs and the economy ministry urges not to neglect the technology, while academic studies estimate 18 to 50 cents per kWh for SMR power compared with 4 to 9 cents for wind.