Global RaceChina runs a 210 MWe SMR plant that has sold power since December 2023. Canada has committed C$20.9 billion to four BWRX-300 units. Poland plans 24. ⚡ Those three numbers show how differently governments define a bet on small reactors. The five countries below each have money on the table, a regulator engaged, and a named site. None has a Western SMR producing power yet. 🌍 Facts are current as of September 20, 2026, and each section flags what might have moved.
How a bet is counted
A study is not a bet. Four tests separate the two, and the five countries in this article pass at least three:
Money: a committed budget, not a feasibility fund
Regulator: a licence or permit in hand, or a design in formal review
Site: a named location with land secured
Owner: a utility or state body that will operate the reactor
Romania, the Czech Republic, and Sweden are all doing serious work, but their projects sit earlier in the process than the five below. 🔍 The countries are ordered by how much hardware already exists, not by how much they spend. Which one would readers back to put an SMR on its grid first? The replies are open. 📊
The five bets
1. China: the only country with SMRs on the grid
China’s HTR-PM at Shidaowan, Shandong, pairs two 250 MWt pebble-bed reactors with one 210 MWe turbine. World Nuclear News reports that it entered commercial operation in December 2023. 🏭 SMRbrief’s breakdown of the five SMR reactor types explains why a gas-cooled pebble bed and a water-cooled design are different machines.
HTR-PM: owned by a consortium led by China Huaneng (47.5%), with CNNC’s engineering arm at 32.5% and Tsinghua University at 20%
Linglong One: a 125 MWe ACP100 integral PWR at Changjiang, Hainan, with first concrete poured July 13, 2021
Status: World Nuclear News still lists Linglong One in pre-commissioning this month, so the first-half 2026 commercial target has passed
2. Canada: the furthest along in the West
Ontario Power Generation is building a 300 MWe BWRX-300, the first of four planned at Darlington. 🇨🇦 The CNSC issued the construction licence in April 2025 and lifted the first regulatory hold point on March 30, 2026.
Budget: C$20.9 billion (about US$15 billion) for four units, approved by Ontario in May 2025
Operating licence: OPG applied on March 25, 2026, and the hearing date is not yet set
Target: first unit complete by the end of the decade
3. United Kingdom: a contract before a design approval
Great British Energy - Nuclear and Rolls-Royce SMR signed a contract on April 13, 2026 for three reactors at Wylfa on Anglesey, Wales, totaling at least 1,400 MW. 🏴 The design is a 470 MWe PWR.
Regulator: the Office for Nuclear Regulation lists the design in Step 3 of the Generic Design Assessment, and that step covers the design, not the Wylfa site
Money: £2.5 billion allocated to GBE-N for the program, with a final investment decision expected in 2029
Early works: GBE-N is now testing the market for £1.1 billion of Wylfa site work
Export: Rolls-Royce SMR also lists up to six units in the Czech Republic
4. Poland: the biggest fleet on paper
Orlen Synthos Green Energy holds decisions-in-principle for up to 24 BWRX-300 reactors at six sites. 🇵🇱 GE Vernova Hitachi and OSGE signed the Polish generic design agreement on February 24, 2026, and the first unit at Włocławek is targeted for 2032.
Ownership: a 50/50 joint venture between state-controlled Orlen and SGE
Subsidy: OSGE applied in June 2026 for a contract for difference covering 14 units
Caution: Orlen’s own 2025 statement aimed for at least two units, 0.6 GW, by 2035, which is a slower pace than the 2032 date
5. United States: the most projects, the least concentration
The US has no single national program. It has several parallel ones. 🚀 TerraPower started nuclear construction on the 345 MWe Natrium sodium-cooled fast reactor at Kemmerer, Wyoming on April 23, 2026, after the NRC voted the construction permit on March 4.
TVA: NRC staff recommended a construction permit for the BWRX-300 at Clinch River in June, and a decision is close
X-energy: four 80 MWe Xe-100 modules at Dow’s Seadrift site, with the permit expected in the first quarter of 2027
DOE pilots: four DOE-authorized test reactors reached criticality by July 4, though all are zero-power units, not power plants
Where the bets can fail
Schedules are the first weak point. Linglong One misses its first-half 2026 date. The UK design assessment, expected to end in August 2026 as of last November, now points to December 2026. ⏳ Poland’s 2032 target sits next to a slower 2035 statement from its own lead partner. Every one of these dates is a forecast, not a fact.
Cost is the second. Divide Ontario’s US$15 billion by 1,200 MWe and the result is about US$12,500 per kilowatt, with shared infrastructure included. That is the number every other government is implicitly betting it can beat. 💰 Want to know how this fits into the broader market picture? SMRbrief Pro has the answers. The gap between the first unit and the fourth is where these programs will be judged.
The third is plain first-of-a-kind risk. Only China has run a small reactor long enough to produce operating data at commercial scale. 📈 Everyone else is still building the first.
Schedule: licence steps and commissioning dates keep moving
Cost: first units carry the price of learning
Delivery: a design approval is not a running plant
If the first Western SMR to sell power lands in Ontario in 2030 at $12,500 per kilowatt, do Poland and the UK still buy?