Europe’s SMR moment has arrived — now comes the hard part 

A week after the European Commission unveiled its strategy for Small Modular Reactors (SMRs), policymakers, industry leaders, and experts gathered in Brussels with a shared recognition: Europe now has momentum — but turning it into delivery will be the real test.  

Andris Piebalgs, former EU Commissioner for Energy and for Development and board member of CEPS, opened the discussion with a key question: whether SMRs should be treated differently from conventional nuclear technologies — a reminder that while momentum is growing, important policy choices remain unresolved. 

The shift is unmistakable

As Matej Tonin, Member of the European Parliament, noted “Right now, and that is quite a promising and a positive sign, we have a big pro-nuclear majority in the Parliament. And that is why such documents [as the SMR strategy] are now possible. Because the Commission feels much more comfortable with such majority in the Parliament.”   

After years of political hesitation, nuclear energy — and SMRs in particular — has moved firmly into the European mainstream following the war in Ukraine and the following energy crisis, putting back on the agenda overlooked source of clean energy. The strategy reflects that change, positioning SMRs not only as a clean energy technology, but as part of a broader effort to strengthen industrial competitiveness, energy security, and resilience. 

But the strategy is only a starting point. 

From strategy to execution 

The direction of travel is now clear. What happens next will depend on Member States and industry. 

As Alessia Virone, Director of Government Affairs at CATF, noted “We need to look at how we’re going to make that strategy into a reality” 

The discussion made clear that Europe does not lack ambition — it risks falling short on execution. Delivering SMRs at scale will require translating the strategy into concrete, milestone-based programmes and stronger coordination across countries. 

Irina Kustova of CEPS underscored that challenge, pointing to a lack of coherence in current policy approaches and warning that without a comprehensive framework, it will remain unclear whether delays stem from industry limitations or from the policy environment itself. 

At the same time, the system need is becoming more urgent. As Europe electrifies and decarbonises its economy, demand is growing for reliable, low-carbon energy that can complement renewables — what is often described as clean firm power. 

The technology exists. The challenge is deploying it fast enough. 

Fragmentation is the biggest risk 

If there was one point of consensus across the discussion, it was this: fragmentation will not work. 

“The challenge, as we see now, is to is to coordinate all these capabilities effectively,” said Kamil Tucek is the Deputy Head of Unit at the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Energy (DG ENER) 

EU’s current landscape — with national approaches to licensing, financing, and industrial strategy — is fundamentally misaligned with how SMRs must be deployed. 

Instead, participants pointed to the need for coalitions of the willing in Europe: groups of countries moving forward together, aligning on reactor designs, regulatory approaches, and deployment timelines. 

“No country will be able to do it alone,” said Malwina Qvist, Director of Nuclear Energy Program at CATF. 

Such coalitions could provide a practical pathway to scale, particularly as full EU-wide harmonisation remains a longer-term challenge. 

Scaling requires focus — and an orderbook 

SMRs will only become economically viable if Europe moves beyond isolated projects and toward serial deployment. 

This is where the concept of a European SMR “orderbook” becomes central. By aggregating demand and committing to multiple units, countries and companies can reduce first-of-a-kind risks and enable cost reductions through repetition. 

Andrei Goicea, representing Nucleareurope and the Secretariat of the European Industrial Alliance on SMRs, highlighted that delivering on this will depend on aligning industry around common approaches and standards to give supply chains the certainty they need to scale. 

But scaling also requires difficult choices. With limited financial and industrial resources, Europe cannot support every SMR reactor design. 

“Spreading our precious resources thinly will just not work,” warned Malwina Qvist. 

Downselecting a limited number of designs — and aligning around them — will be essential to meeting early 2030s deployment timelines. 

Regulation: from bottleneck to enabler 

While much attention is often placed on technology, the discussion highlighted a different constraint: regulation. 

“The gap between political agenda, ambition and regulatory reality is still enormous,” pointed out Łukasz Młynarkiewicz, attorney-at-law, Head of the Nuclear Energy Practice at Kochański & Partners. 

As Matej Tonin put it, “If we will have still 27 licensing systems… then we can forget about it”. 

Today’s fragmented licensing systems risk slowing deployment and undermining the benefits of standardisation. 

One solution gaining attention is reliance-based licensing — a practical, near-term approach where regulators build on each other’s assessments rather than duplicating them. “Physics does not change at the border,” stressed Łukasz Młynarkiewicz. 

Such approaches could improve efficiency without requiring full regulatory harmonisation — helping bridge the gap between national sovereignty and cross-border deployment. 

A narrow window of opportunity 

Beyond energy, SMRs represent a significant industrial opportunity for Europe — from supply chains and skills to export potential. 

According to Kamil Tucek ,“SMRs could become one of the EU’s next major industrial development projects.”  

As Domenico Rossetti di Valdalbero of DG RTD noted, recent policy developments — including the Industrial Accelerator Act — highlight a dual objective: enabling rapid SMR deployment while ensuring that key components are manufactured in Europe. 

The opportunity is significant — but time-limited. Other regions are already advancing. If Europe delays, it risks losing both industrial leadership and strategic advantage. 

Meeting the moment 

The EU’s SMR strategy reflects a growing recognition: achieving climate neutrality, energy security, and industrial competitiveness will require a broader set of tools — including clean, reliable, and scalable sources of power. 

But strategy alone will not deliver reactors. 

As CATF’s recommendations outlined and speakers broadly agreed, turning ambition into reality will depend on several factors, including: 

• Creating mechanisms to aggregate demand and build a European orderbook 

• Enabling faster, more coordinated licensing 

• Translating high-level strategy into concrete deployment  

Above all, it will require urgency. 

Europe’s SMR moment has arrived. The question now is whether it can act quickly enough to seize it.