An Executive Summary of Holtec’s SMR-160’s key features and capabilities that underpin its universal appeal as the ideal workhorse for carbon-free distributed Power Generation

Conceived by Dr. Kris Singh of Holtec International (NJ, USA) in 2010, the SMR-160 is a water- cooled small modular reactor that would produce 160 MW electric power using conventional enriched uranium fuel available from current worldwide commercial suppliers. The SMR-160 is termed the world’s safest nuclear reactor because it does not rely on any pump or motor for its safe operation. Only pure water is used in its systems and most importantly, water circulates purely by the action of gravity. Another important feature of the SMR-160 is that it is walk away safe, which means that in the case of an accident from any source (including sabotage or terrorist action), the reactor does not rely upon human intervention to safely shut down! In other words, the SMR-160 is unconditionally harmless to its host community. Euphemistically speaking, its presence in any population center would be as benign as a chocolate factory, with no risk of a Chernobyl or a Fukushima type of catastrophe.