OMEGA Seminar Programme 2024-25: Second Edition

Small modular reactors (SMRs) are the latest in the long series of techno-scientific promises in the nuclear sector. Compared to the currently operating large nuclear power plants, SMRs promise to be a faster, cheaper, safer, and more flexible low-carbon solution, compatible with the foreseen renewables-based energy systems and transitions. They are portrayed as a break away from the logic of economies of scale, and thereby to avoid the serious technical, safety and economic problems that have plagued the Western-country nuclear megaprojects in the past couple of decades. No SMRs are yet in operation in the West, yet nearly a hundred designs are at planning or development stage.

The successful deployment of SMRs – just as that of any techno-scientific innovation – requires the construction of promises, which habitually entails controversies between promissory and critical narratives and policy actors. To be powerful, a promise must convince key stakeholders (investors, policymakers, researchers, vendors, and the public at large) about its legitimacy and credibility. SMRs thus need to address a widely recognised and urgent societal challenge (climate change, energy security, technological progress, regional development), while demonstrating ability to deliver on the promise, for instance by claiming the novel designs build on” tried and proven technologies”.

Drawing in particular on examples from Canada, Finland, France, and the UK, this presentation explores the construction of legitimacy and credibility of the SMR promise. It explores questions such as: How and to what extent do SMRs differ from the conventional nuclear megaprojects? How solid are the foundations for legitimacy and credibility of the SMR promise? Who are the real beneficiaries of the SMR promise? What can the experience from techno-scientific promising and the history of the nuclear sector teach us about the potential of SMRs as a response to the urgent societal challenges they pretend to solve?

The Seminar Programme allows the OMEGA Centre to provide a platform to present findings of recently completed and on going infrastructure projects globally, and to engage with a wide audience from academia and praxis. The OMEGA Centre has undertaken a wide range of research and consultancy studies on several pressing issues related to: the treatment of “Risk, Uncertainty and Complexity” in project decision making, the “Power of Context” on such decision-making, and the role of “Sustainability and Sustainable Development Visions” for mega project infrastructure investments.

The seminar programme invites speakers involved in a variety of aspects of mega infrastructure project developments with a view to encouraging cross disciplinary collaboration and knowledge-transfer. Past and current contributions to the Seminar Programme draw from OMEGA Centre researchers, as well as external speakers, including: journalists, public officials, consultants, investment bankers, industry leaders and academics.

The OMEGA Seminar Programme is open to everyone interested in issues, challenges and achievements in mega infrastructure development across all sectors, especially those associated with major project developments overseas. The seminars are recorded and videoed, with outputs posted (subject to permission) on the OMEGA Centre Website. By drawing on experts from many disciplines, various sectors and different countries, the OMEGA Seminar Programme looks to stimulate debate on crucial topics, such as: infrastructure investments as agents of change, project challenges of sustainability, financing and technological opportunities for projects within the global market. The seminars look to foster the generation of innovative approaches to tackling/ addressing current and future threats, risks and opportunities of contemporary megaproject decision-making and decision making in future environments.

This is a hybrid event.