The Energy Information Administration published a breakdown of small modular reactors and microreactors under development in the United States, charting nameplate generating capacity across every design in the pipeline. The designs span four broad technology families: light water cooled reactors, high-temperature gas reactors, molten salt reactors, and sodium cooled reactors.

Capacity per unit varies by more than two orders of magnitude across the set. Microreactor designs start near 1 megawatt-electric, sized for remote sites, industrial process heat, and military installations. Larger SMR designs reach into the hundreds of megawatts, with the GE Vernova Hitachi BWRX-300 rated at 300 megawatts-electric and the NuScale module approved at 77 megawatts-electric per unit after its 2026 uprate.

Light water cooled designs dominate the near-term deployment schedule because they reuse the fuel form, materials, and regulatory precedent of the existing fleet. High-temperature gas, molten salt, and sodium cooled designs sit further back in the licensing queue and require fuel types that domestic enrichment capacity is only now being built to supply.

The existing United States fleet of 94 reactors produces roughly 100 gigawatts and holds an 18 percent share of national generation. Federal targets call for reaching 400 gigawatts of nuclear capacity by 2050, a level that cannot be met through large reactor construction alone at current build rates.

Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration - https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=67584