Of the three imperatives (economics, safety, waste disposal) the iPWR does not bring any new approach to the third one, since it is a PWR. Thus, the waste management aspect is not discussed any further here.

Regarding the first imperative, the SMRs in general do not appear at first to be the logical design for achieving competitive economics, since they go against the economy of scale that has prompted larger and larger plants. A new type of design therefore needs to be developed, one that is simpler, requiring fewer components, and that can be built in a shorter time than the present light-water reactors (LWRs). Here the introduction of the iPWR, which capitalizes on the multi-decade development, construction and operating experience of the PWR, is a plant representing the vast majority of nuclear plants built to date. The iPWR designs proposed and investigated do indeed promise economic competiveness with present nuclear plants as well as conventional energy sources.

However, the raison d’etre of the iPWR is how it aggressively and innovatively addresses the second imperative, superior safety. The configuration has intrinsically this capability, for example by eliminating the occurrence of large LOCAs (loss of coolant accidents) through locating the steam generators inside the vessel, or of control rod ejection accidents, through also locating the control rod drive mechanisms inside the vessel. Most remarkably, the iPWR has the capability, if properly designed, to address synergistically the first two imperatives, that is an increase in safety is concomitant with a decrease in cost, as will be elaborated later in Section 3.5.