Where Will U.S. SMR Companies Find Their Next International Markets?

Global electricity demand is rising fast, driven by industrial electrification and data center growth. Governments around the world are responding by putting nuclear into power plans, and small modular reactors stay in it for a reason. Regarding American SMR developers, this is more than a technology trend. It is a commercial necessity. Domestic projects in the United States move slowly through Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) licensing and long capital cycles, so international markets are where near-term revenue and reference projects will come from. The companies best positioned to benefit, including NuScale Power, X-energy, Holtec International, and TerraPower, need to secure international contracts now, and they need to do it against well-funded state-backed competitors from China and Russia.

Southeast Asia Is the Nearest Opportunity

Southeast Asia is currently the most active region for SMR commercialization. Regional power demand is expected to double by 2050, and the region needs an estimated $208 billion in nuclear capital investment to reach 25 gigawatts of nuclear capacity by mid-century. Conventional gigawatt-scale reactors do not fit well in this region because many ASEAN power grids are fragmented and constrained by island geography. Reactors in the 50 to 300 MWe range fit better, since they need smaller emergency planning zones and can replace aging coal and diesel plants more easily.

The Philippines is the most advanced and most US-aligned market in the region. The U.S.-Philippines Section 123 Agreement, which entered into force in July 2024, gives the two countries a legal framework for nuclear trade, equipment transfers, and technical cooperation. Manila has set a target of 1,200 MW of nuclear capacity by 2032, rising to 4,800 MW by 2050. The country has also created an independent nuclear regulator, PhilATOM, under its National Nuclear Energy Safety Act, which reduces regulatory uncertainty for any vendor entering the market. On top of this, the U.S. Trade and Development Agency has committed $2.7 million to Meralco PowerGen to evaluate American SMR designs and build a roadmap for the country's first SMR plant. The State Department's Foundational Infrastructure for Responsible Use of Small Modular Reactor Technology (FIRST) program is also funding university partnerships with Texas A&M and King's College London, along with reactor simulator facilities in the Luzon Economic Corridor, to build a local technical workforce.

Indonesia's market looks different. Demand is driven by industry, not utilities. The national power plan for 2025 to 2034 includes 500 MW of nuclear capacity by 2034, aimed mainly at the mining regions of Sumatra and Kalimantan. These areas process nickel, bauxite, and aluminum and currently rely on high-emission captive coal plants for power. An SMR that can replace that coal capacity has a clear customer already in place.

Thailand's power development plan targets two 300 MW SMR units, 600 MW total, with construction starting in 2032 and commercial operation expected by 2037.

Korea and Japan Are Manufacturing Partners, Not Buyers

In South Korea and Japan, US SMR companies are not selling finished reactors. They are building supply partnerships. The United States has lost much of its domestic capacity for heavy forging and nuclear-grade equipment manufacturing, which makes Korean industrial firms essential partners for actually building these plants.

Several of these partnerships are already in place. Doosan Enerbility is positioning itself as a manufacturing base for SMR components. Hyundai E&C is working with Westinghouse on large reactors and SMRs, and separately with Holtec International and TerraPower on SMR construction. Samsung C&T is partnered with GE Vernova Hitachi Nuclear Energy on large reactors and SMRs, and with NuScale Power on SMR construction. DL E&C is working with X-energy. Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power is developing its own SMR design, and firms including SK Group, HD Hyundai, and GS Energy are working with international partners on projects ranging from offshore SMRs to equipment supply.

The commercial logic here is straightforward. By combining US reactor technology with Korean manufacturing and construction capability, American vendors can offer emerging markets a complete, bankable project package, backed by companies with a track record of delivering large industrial projects on cost and on schedule.

Africa Is the Long-Term Frontier

African markets present a longer-term opportunity. Urban power demand is rising, national grids are often small and vulnerable, and many mining and industrial operations run off-grid entirely. The main obstacles are financing and the early stage of nuclear regulatory systems in most African countries, which means any US market-entry strategy needs to include institutional and regulatory capacity building, not just a reactor sale.

Ghana is currently the clearest example of Western nuclear cooperation on the continent. Nuclear Power Ghana signed an agreement with US-based Regnum Technology Group to deploy a NuScale VOYGR-12 plant, with commercial operation targeted for the mid-2030s. To support this, the U.S. Department of Energy and the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission set up a Regional Nuclear Energy Training Hub in Accra, backed by $1.75 million in FIRST program funding. Kenya, Rwanda, Nigeria, South Africa, and Morocco are all in earlier stages of evaluating SMR potential.

The Competition, and What It Means for Market Entry

The biggest obstacle to US success in these markets is not technology. It is competition from state-backed Chinese and Russian vendors. The China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) has moved its 125 MWe ACP100 (Linglong One) reactor through cold functional testing and non-nuclear steam trials, with commercial operation targeted for the first half of 2026. That would make it the world's first operating land-based commercial SMR, giving China a working reference plant years ahead of Western competitors. Russia's Rosatom, meanwhile, offers a full Build-Own-Operate model, where the Russian state finances, builds, operates, and fuels the plant and takes back the spent fuel. That is a financing offer that most commercially funded US developers cannot match on their own.

To compete, US developers need to use the full range of American export finance and diplomatic tools available. That includes the Export-Import Bank of the United States, the International Development Finance Corporation, and coordination through the International Trade Administration's Civil Nuclear/SMR Industry Working Group (CNIWG) for Southeast Asia, which is meant to help American firms and regional utilities find each other and move projects forward together.

No single American vendor can win these markets alone with a reactor license and nothing else. What works is a package: US reactor technology, Korean manufacturing and construction capacity, and financing support from EXIM and the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), aimed at industrial customers such as mining operators who already have a clear economic reason to switch away from coal or diesel. That combination is what turns a memorandum of understanding into an actual commissioned nuclear plant.