IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/arv/journl/v3y2025i1p97-116.html

Nuclear Small Reactors as a Key Solution in the Net-Zero Transition

Author

Listed:
  • Piotr F. Borowski

Abstract

The ongoing transformation of the energy sector, driven by the global push for decarbonization, technological advancements, and energy security, positions small modular reactors (SMRs) as a pivotal innovation in the portfolio of energy enterprises. This study explores SMRs as a key sustainable development direction for energy companies aiming to meet stringent environmental goals while addressing growing energy demands. Various types of fuel such as LEU (Low-Enriched Uranium), HALEU (High-Assay Low-Enriched Uranium), TRISTO (Tri-Structural Isotropic), Molten Salt Fuel and MOX (Mixed Oxide Fuel) were also analyzed in terms of their properties and possibilities of use in SMRs. The research incorporates secondary data to examine the economic, environmental, and strategic implications of adopting SMRs. Insights are drawn from global case studies and industry reports, highlighting the potential for SMRs to enhance operational efficiency, reduce costs, and support the transition to a low-carbon economy. The study also identifies key challenges, including regulatory barriers, public acceptance, and technological readiness, that must be addressed to fully realize the potential of SMRs. the findings underscore the critical role of SMRs in enabling energy enterprises to achieve sustainability while maintaining competitiveness in an evolving energy landscape. Companies like Rolls-Royce SMR, NuScale Power, Rosatom, General Electric Hitachi, and Kairos Power are pushing the boundaries of technology by investing heavily in research and development initiatives. This research contributes to a deeper understanding of how SMRs can serve as a corner-stone of innovation and adaptability in the energy sector, paving the way for resilient and sustainable energy systems in the future.

Suggested Citation

  • Piotr F. Borowski, 2025. "Nuclear Small Reactors as a Key Solution in the Net-Zero Transition," Journal of Sustainable Development Issues (JOSDI), SDIjournals, vol. 3(1), pages 97-116, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:arv:journl:v:3:y:2025:i:1:p:97-116
    DOI: 10.62433/josdi.v3i1.54
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journalsdi.com/index.php/jsdi/article/view/54/29
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journalsdi.com/index.php/jsdi/article/view/54
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.62433/josdi.v3i1.54?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Beck, T.H.L. & Demirgüc-Kunt, A. & Martinez Peria, M., 2011. "Banking financing for SME's : Evidence across countries and bank ownership types," Other publications TiSEM c4d491c9-2cc6-40f6-ad55-a, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    2. Berger, Allen N. & Klapper, Leora F. & Udell, Gregory F., 2001. "The ability of banks to lend to informationally opaque small businesses," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 25(12), pages 2127-2167, December.
    3. repec:prg:jnlpep:v:2015:y:2015:i:5:id:527:p:1-23 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Piotr F. Borowski, 2025. "Economic and Technological Challenges in Zero-Emission Strategies for Energy Companies," Energies, MDPI, vol. 18(4), pages 1-23, February.
    5. Jimenez, Gabriel & Salas, Vicente & Saurina, Jesus, 2006. "Determinants of collateral," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(2), pages 255-281, August.
    6. Atif Mian, 2006. "Distance Constraints: The Limits of Foreign Lending in Poor Economies," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 61(3), pages 1465-1505, June.
    7. D'Aurizio, Leandro & Oliviero, Tommaso & Romano, Livio, 2015. "Family firms, soft information and bank lending in a financial crisis," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 279-292.
    8. Chun Chang & Guanmin Liao & Xiaoyun Yu & Zheng Ni, 2014. "Information from Relationship Lending: Evidence from Loan Defaults in China," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 46(6), pages 1225-1257, September.
    9. Ishaq, Muhammad & Dincer, Ibrahim, 2024. "A clean hydrogen and electricity co-production system based on an integrated plant with small modular nuclear reactor," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 308(C).
    10. Menkhoff, Lukas & Neuberger, Doris & Rungruxsirivorn, Ornsiri, 2012. "Collateral and its substitutes in emerging markets’ lending," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 36(3), pages 817-834.
    11. Mieczyslaw Adamowicz & Aldona Machla, 2016. "Small And Medium Enterprises And The Support Policy Of Local Government," Oeconomia Copernicana, Institute of Economic Research, vol. 7(3), pages 405-437, September.
    12. Tereza Fišerová & Petr Teplý & David Tripe, 2015. "The Performance of Foreign-Owned Banks in Host Country Economies," Prague Economic Papers, Prague University of Economics and Business, vol. 2015(5), pages 538-561.
    13. Pablo Fernández-Arias & Diego Vergara & Álvaro Antón-Sancho, 2023. "Bibliometric Review and Technical Summary of PWR Small Modular Reactors," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(13), pages 1-15, July.
    14. Budnitz, Robert J. & Rogner, H-Holger & Shihab-Eldin, Adnan, 2018. "Expansion of nuclear power technology to new countries – SMRs, safety culture issues, and the need for an improved international safety regime," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 535-544.
    15. Joeri Rogelj & Oliver Geden & Annette Cowie & Andy Reisinger, 2021. "Net-zero emissions targets are vague: three ways to fix," Nature, Nature, vol. 591(7850), pages 365-368, March.
    16. Clarke, George & Cull, Robert & Martinez Peria, Maria Soledad & Sanchez, Susana M, 2005. "Bank Lending to Small Businesses in Latin America: Does Bank Origin Matter?," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 37(1), pages 83-118, February.
    17. Carlo L. Vinoya & Aristotle T. Ubando & Alvin B. Culaba & Wei-Hsin Chen, 2023. "State-of-the-Art Review of Small Modular Reactors," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(7), pages 1-30, April.
    18. Thorsten Beck & Asli Demirgüç-Kunt & María Pería, 2011. "Bank Financing for SMEs: Evidence Across Countries and Bank Ownership Types," Journal of Financial Services Research, Springer;Western Finance Association, vol. 39(1), pages 35-54, April.
    19. Asuega, Anthony & Limb, Braden J. & Quinn, Jason C., 2023. "Techno-economic analysis of advanced small modular nuclear reactors," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 334(C).
    20. Meghana Ayyagari & Thorsten Beck & Asli Demirguc-Kunt, 2007. "Small and Medium Enterprises Across the Globe," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 29(4), pages 415-434, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Nor Balkish Zakaria & Muhammad Farhan Nordin & Rahimah Mohamed Yunos & Jamaliah Said, 2019. "The Integrity of Local Enforcement Officers: Self Proclaim vs Colleague Perception," International Journal of Financial Research, International Journal of Financial Research, Sciedu Press, vol. 11(5), pages 288-300, August.
    2. Beck, T.H.L. & Ioannidou, V. & Schäfer, L., 2012. "Foreigners vs. Natives : Bank Lending Technologies and Loan Pricing," Other publications TiSEM 27d1ebf0-b7f4-45fa-8b35-3, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    3. Victor Motta, 2017. "Are SMEs in the hospitality industry less likely to experience credit constraint than other industries in the service sector? Evidence from Latin America," Tourism Economics, , vol. 23(7), pages 1398-1418, November.
    4. Pelletier, Adeline, 2018. "Performance of foreign banks in developing countries: Evidence from sub-Saharan African banking markets," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 292-311.
    5. Bremus, Franziska & Neugebauer, Katja, 2018. "Reduced cross-border lending and financing costs of SMEs," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 80, pages 35-58.
    6. Saibal Ghosh, 2016. "Small business, lending relationships and crisis: evidence from Indian micro data," DECISION: Official Journal of the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, Springer;Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, vol. 43(1), pages 1-15, March.
    7. Ririen Setiati Riyanti & Iván Arribas & Silvia Pazzi & Emili Tortosa-Ausina, 2022. "The impacts of static ownership types and governance changes on small business lending: Evidence from Indonesia," Working Papers 2022/13, Economics Department, Universitat Jaume I, Castellón (Spain).
    8. Rahman Ashiqur & Rahman M. Twyeafur & Belas Jaroslav, 2017. "Determinants of SME Finance: Evidence from Three Central European Countries," Review of Economic Perspectives, Sciendo, vol. 17(3), pages 263-285, September.
    9. Bremus, Franziska Maria & Neugebauer, Katja, 2015. "Don't Stop Me Now: The Impact of Credit Market Segmentation on Firms' Financing Constraints," VfS Annual Conference 2015 (Muenster): Economic Development - Theory and Policy 112857, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    10. Bremus, Franziska & Neugebauer, Katja, 2017. "Don't stop me now: the impact of credit market fragmentation on firms' financing constraints," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 70774, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    11. Thorsten Beck & Vasso Ioannidou & Larissa Schäfer, 2018. "Foreigners vs. Natives: Bank Lending Technologies and Loan Pricing," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 64(8), pages 3792-3820, August.
    12. Beck, Thorsten & Degryse, Hans & De Haas, Ralph & van Horen, Neeltje, 2018. "When arm's length is too far: Relationship banking over the credit cycle," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(1), pages 174-196.
    13. Junyong Lee & Frederick Dongchuhl Oh, 2025. "Foreign bank entry and performance of domestic SMEs: evidence from Korea," Annals of Finance, Springer, vol. 21(2), pages 131-162, June.
    14. Berg, Gunhild & Fuchs, Michael, 2013. "Bank financing of SMEs in five Sub-Saharan African countries : the role of competition, innovation, and the government," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6563, The World Bank.
    15. Andrea F. Presbitero & Roberta Rabellotti, 2016. "The Determinants of Firm Access to Credit in Latin America: Micro Characteristics and Market Structure," Economic Notes, Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA, vol. 45(3), pages 445-472, November.
    16. Lončarski, Igor & Marinč, Matej, 2020. "The political economy of relationship banking," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 51(C).
    17. M. Chabachib & Aji Yudha & Hersugondo Hersugondo & Imang Dapit Pamungkas & Udin Udin, 2019. "The Role of Firm Size on Bank Liquidity and Performance: A Comparative Study of Domestic and Foreign Banks in Indonesia," International Journal of Economics & Business Administration (IJEBA), International Journal of Economics & Business Administration (IJEBA), vol. 0(3), pages 96-105.
    18. Boustanifar, Hamid, 2014. "Information acquisition, foreign bank entry, and credit allocation," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 54(3), pages 324-336.
    19. Ramcharran, Harri, 2017. "Bank lending to small business in India: Analyzing productivity and efficiency," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 16-24.
    20. Minyan Zhu, 2012. "Large Foreign Banks and Small-Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs): Friends or Foes," Working Paper series, University of East Anglia, Centre for Competition Policy (CCP) 2012-06, Centre for Competition Policy, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK..

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • Q20 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Renewable Resources and Conservation - - - General
    • Q40 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:arv:journl:v:3:y:2025:i:1:p:97-116. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Shahriyar Mukhtarov (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.