A report by the New South Wales (NSW) Commissioner for Productivity has suggested easing restrictions on nuclear energy in a bid to boost the state’s economic prosperity. The May 31 white paper, titled “Rebooting the Economy,” provided a list of recommendations for the NSW government in improving the productivity growth of Australia’s largest state, which included lifting Australia’s nationwide nuclear energy ban to allow for the use of small-scale nuclear reactors. Nuclear energy generation is prohibited under the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Act 1998 (ARPANS), and the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC). The technology proposed, known as the small modular reactor (SMR), is currently being developed in the United States, with NuScale at the forefront being the first to receive U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission design approval. Large reactor normally sustain an output of around 1,000 megawatts (MW), whereas considerably smaller SMRs typically generate less than …