Technoeconomic analysis of small modular reactors decarbonizing industrial process heat

Providing high-temperature industrial heat is a key decarbonization challenge. Nuclear small modular reactors (SMRs) could meet this decarbonization challenge, but no technoeconomic analyses of their potential exist. We quantify the technoeconomic potential of five SMR types for displacing natural gas providing process heat for 357 industrial facility processes across five US states. At 2021 US gas prices, we find no SMRs are economically viable when providing process heat alone. 28 SMR modules (5.6 GWth) and 256 modules (28.6 GWth) are economically viable at avoided gas costs of $8 and $16/MMBtu, respectively. By also participating in wholesale power markets, we find up to 113 industrial facility processes (6% of industrial demand) could be economically served by 33.9 GWth of SMRs, avoiding 4 million tons of CO2 emissions annually at 2021 US gas prices. Our analysis identifies key criteria that drive SMR economic viability, including thermal demand quantity and quality matching.