The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) held an international conference on small modular reactors (SMRs) and their applications at its headquarters in Vienna of Austria from October 21 to 25.

With the attendance of over 1,200 people from 95 IAEA's member states, the conference aimed to provide SMRs stakeholders with a platform for their exchanges, make assessments of the development of the nuclear sector, and hold discussions over the opportunities as well as challenges for the accelerated development and safe and secure deployment of SMRs.

To fully meet the demand of the international community for clean energy, China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) has come up with its independently-developed Linglong One, the world's first commercial onshore SMR, and high temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR) technology as China's energy solutions.

At the roundtable forum of the conference's opening ceremony, the CNNC elaborated its advantages, deployment and massive construction plans in the building of SMRs, and briefed attending experts worldwide about the nuclear power heating plant in Xuwei of East China's Jiangsu province as well as the application scenarios linked with SMRs in different sizes.

So far, the CNNC has completed the building of all its nuclear power plants within budgets, injecting confidence for the international community in the utilization of China's SMR technology.

After the opening ceremony, IAEA Director-General Rafael Mariano Grossi and foreign ambassadors to the IAEA visited exhibition booth of the CNNC featuring the building of a beautiful homeland with nuclear power. Grossi said that he has closely followed the construction progress of the ACP100 nuclear power plant in South China's Hainan Province and that he looks forward to the realization of major objectives in the building of SMRs.

Additionally, Grossi spoke highly of the nuclear power heating plant in Xuwei and extraordinary contributions made by the CNNC to the innovative application of SMRs.

During the closing ceremony of the first-stage meeting and the opening ceremony of the second-stage meeting of the IAEA Nuclear Harmonisation and Standardisation Initiative (NHSI), CNNC representatives said that compared with established large modular reactor construction model, SMRs have given priority to the safety of nuclear power plant. Grossi agreed with such a proposal.

At the conference, the CNNC and its subsidiaries also attended its side forums. For instance, representatives of China Nuclear Power Institute and Chinergy Co Ltd delivered two separate reports titled "the Design, Construction and Application of the ACP100" and "the Research and Application of HTGR's HTR-PM" respectively, in which they talked with attendees about the Linglong One and HTGR-related products, and shared about China's sound experience in the safe and orderly development and utilization of nuclear power.

Their speeches met warm response from delegates worldwide.

On the sidelines of the conference, the CNNC delegation held an inspection tour in the corporation's European branch and held exchanges over the exploration of international market.