Carbon reduction and nuclear energy policy U-turn: the necessity for an international treaty on small modular reactors (SMR) new nuclear technology

Pressure to reduce carbon emission and meet Net-zero targets is forcing countries to re-introduce nuclear energy in their energy-mix. As a result, many countries have re-classified nuclear energy as a green energy to encourage investments and developments in this sector. Further, advances in nuclear energy technology have led to the development of Small Modular Reactors (SMR), which has continued to stimulate increasing interests from both developed and developing countries. Hence, it is expected that in the coming years, there would be increased deployment of SMR across the globe. This renewed interest in nuclear energy and expected global deployment of the novel SMR, would encounter some legal issues. Therefore, this paper analysed the nuclear energy international legal and regulatory frameworks (relevant nuclear energy conventions and treaties) currently used for the conventional large nuclear power plants (NPPs) to understand how adequate they are for SMR deployment. Various critical gaps were found in the extant laws that could make them not to fully cater for all the peculiarities of the new SMR nuclear technology. This may affect the effective regulation and smooth deployment of SMRs across countries. Therefore, this paper argues that a single specific international treaty on SMR that will cover the regulation of all aspects of SMR deployment, and their peculiarities is highly needed to support countries to justly transition into a Net-zero era.