SMRs are being considered by countries across the globe and are "increasingly the primary focus of several nations", the association said, but the "risks and challenges" associated with such technologies need to be addressed.

"INRA members recognise the potential safety performance opportunities that SMR technologies could offer and the important role of regulators in ensuring that these technologies are deployed safely, securely and consistent with robust non‑proliferation requirements, in countries that wish to adopt them.

"INRA members whose countries are pursuing new nuclear programmes are committed to proactively collaborate on generic reactor design assessments and licensing and support national regulatory reviews in (re)embarking nations with new nuclear ambitions. These INRA members will seek to establish bi‑lateral and multi‑lateral arrangements to enable the provision of advice and guidance and the sharing of regulatory evaluations in support of their national regulatory reviews, lifecycle expertise and resources," the regulators said.

"Maximising the value of collaborative reactor design evaluation requires countries that wish to adopt SMRs to commit to specific SMR technologies on similar timeframes and for vendors to develop their safety analysis and reactor designs to a level suitable for regulatory assessment. Those INRA members commit to undertake risk informed, proportionate and well targeted evaluations, and to dedicate the resource required to deliver at pace when technology decisions are taken."