International perspective

There are some options, however, for wider levels of international cooperation using a globalised modular approach to the build and development of small reactors. A single product that has access to a global market will need to offer routes for international offset and localisation of content and workscope. Depending on the approach to modularity throughout the plant, i. e. both the nuclear island components and the balance of plant, it could be possible to support a localisation scope objective where the mechanical and process interface can be defined at a module boundary. In this way the modularisation within a whole power plant can open up opportunities for localisation. Equally the fixed interfaces across these module boundaries will limit options for change. History has shown that the level of control across modular interface boundaries will need to be managed under robust change control to ensure that interface compatibility problems do not arise and cause delays on site. The small reactor that is moving towards a commodity product is going to need to balance the business case requirements of localisation against the value of standardisation.