Per Watt generated they use more resources. Again, per Watt generated, not overall. Most large scale plants generate GWs of power with each core being close to a full GW or more, where SMBs are in the low hundreds of MWs. Larger plants are able to leverage their scale to reduce resources for the secondary and support items, like the power distribution or large scale cooling systems, the later get significantly cheaper and less resource intensive with larger size. So it does costs more for the whole (large) site, but when you break the cost down per Watt of generated power, larger sites will tend to be cheaper to both build and operate.

SMRs do potentially have additional safety features though, so it's possible operational costs might be less. But material costs won't be smaller, you still need containment system, turbines, transformers sub-stations, etc. They'll be smaller because there's less load, but when you scale that up to the same output of a large plant, you'll need more resources for the same power output.

I'm not trying to knock SMRs. A single plant is cheaper to build, but it also generates significantly less power then a larger unit, with many of the same design and zoning constraints.

>Not likely. Mass production tends to result in efficiencies that can't be achieved with bespoke engineering at any scale.

I mean they use more materials, you can't get away from that fact. Efficient use of materials can never reduce costs bellow material costs.

>Not to mention, SMRs can be dropped in just about anywhere at the substation level, repurposing more of the existing infrastructure, while making it more resilient. Rather than having to build out extensive infrastructure just to accommodate the construction phase of this mega plant.

There are some advantages, but in practical sense, most are not realizable. Like your drop and install anyway point. People don't want to live around nukes, even small ones. Zoning and planing are decided at a high level with input from local citizenry. If they don't want it, it wont be installed. Centralized plants have a much easier time navigating and absorbing these costs.

> And I thought we were getting away from building these mega reactors anyway and going to SMRs.

SMRs are likely to be more expensive in the end then larger reactor systems. By design they use more materials were Watt of generated power. Some of that cost might be recuperated if built at scale, but probably not all of it.

They're also likely to have less thermal efficiency as well. Plus side, less local environmental impact and damage from waste heat, since the thermal output (overall) is less. It's still going to be more per Watt.