In spite of all the cost concerns surrounding small modular reactors (SMRs) and new nuclear power in general, Europe is still placing them at the core of any nuclear strategy. As the world waits for fusion to have a significant breakthrough and any visible pathway towards commercialization, one can wonder if fusion reactors of the future will have to maneuver past the same hurdles which SMRs are attempting today. More specifically, the US and Lithuania have signed an agreement to emphasize SMRs amid a wider exploration of the North-East European country’s civil nuclear power program, while Slovenia is now considering SMRs following the cancellation of a planned referendum on the JEK2 nuclear power project – a second nuclear reactor. Lithuania’s…