SMR Nuclear Safety & Licensing Patent Snapshot 2026
The SMR nuclear safety and licensing patent space is highly concentrated, with Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power and Westinghouse Electric collectively anchoring the field and the top five filers accounting for 83% of the hundred largest filers’ combined total. Filing activity was largely dormant from 2018 through 2021 before recovering sharply in 2024, reflecting the accelerating global push to license small modular reactor designs.
Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power leads a tightly held field
Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Co. Ltd ranks first with 7 patent records, followed closely by Westinghouse Electric Corp with 6, establishing a two-player lead tier that defines the assignee snapshot.
The top five filers — Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power, Westinghouse Electric, Advanced Reactor Concepts LLC, Shanghai Nuclear Engineering Research & Design Institute, and UNIST — together account for 83% of the ranked applicants visible in this query’ combined total, signaling a strongly concentrated field with a steep drop-off beyond the top tier.
| # | Applicant | Patent records | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | KOREA HYDRO & NUCLEAR POWER CO LTD | 7 | |
| 2 | Westinghouse Electric Corp | 6 | |
| 3 | Advanced Reactor Concepts LLC | 3 | |
| 4 | SHANGHAI NUCLEAR ENGINEERING RESEARCH & DESIGN INS… | 2 | |
| 5 | UNIST (ULSAN NAT INST OF SCI & TECH) | 1 | |
| 6 | China Nuclear Power Design Company | 1 | |
| 7 | China Nuclear Power Engineering Company Ltd | 1 | |
| 8 | Nuclearis Corp | 1 | |
| 9 | Nuwell Energy Inc | 1 |
The dominance of these two lead players, one Korean state utility and one legacy US nuclear OEM, suggests that licensing-grade safety IP is tightly held by organisations with direct regulatory engagement, creating a meaningful barrier for new entrants seeking standards-compliant protection.
Records published in the most recent 18–24 months are likely under-counted due to standard patent-publication lag; the apparent volume in 2025–2026 should be treated as a floor, not a ceiling. Longer-window growth, applicant concentration, and technology-route coverage are therefore more reliable signals than the latest-year bar alone.
A dormant middle decade gives way to a 2024 surge; reactor-core IP dominates the technology mix
The two charts below reveal both the temporal rhythm of SMR safety filing activity and the technology sub-classes that attract the most protection.
Annual filing trend
After a burst of three records in 2017, filings were silent from 2018 through 2021 — a period when SMR licensing frameworks were still nascent. A single record appeared in each of 2022 and 2023, then volume jumped to six records in 2024 before settling to three in 2025. The 2025 and 2026 counts should be read as provisional given publication lag.
↗ Hover for values · click a bar to ask EurekaTechnology composition
G21C (Nuclear reactors) is visible in with 22 records, followed by G21D (Nuclear power plants) with 11 — together accounting for the large majority of the filing corpus. G05B (Control and regulating systems) and G06F (Electric digital data processing) each hold 6 records, indicating a meaningful secondary interest in digital instrumentation and control relevant to licensing submissions. Four branches — conveying and material handling, earth drilling, pressure vessels, and geothermal systems — each appear just once, flagging them as sparsely covered adjacent areas.
↗ Hover for values · click a bar to ask EurekaHighly cited patent families surfaced by the query
Citation-heavy patent families returned by the query. Use this section as citation context, not as a curated list of the most topic-specific patents.
Small modular reactor power plant with load follow…
Provided herein is a small modular nuclear reactor plant that can comprise a reactor core comprising a primary sodium comprising cool primary sodium flow and heated primary sodium flow. Heated primary sodium flow can enter one or more IHXs where heated primary sodium exchanges heat with secondary sodium flowing through at least one intermediate sodium loop… (excerpt from the patent abstract)
| # | Patent | Citations |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Small modular reactor safety systems | 58 |
| 2 | 一种自充压堆芯补水系统 | 15 |
| 3 | Small modular reactor power plant with load follow… | 13 |
| 4 | Small modular reactor safety systems | 9 |
| 5 | Small modular reactor power plant with load follow… | 8 |
| 6 | Small modular reactor safety systems | 3 |
| 7 | Small modular Reactor including the passive safety… | 2 |
| 8 | 小型模块化反应堆的专设安全系统 | 1 |
Ranked by total forward citations. Citation counts favour older and broadly cited patent families, and broad or adjacent patents may appear when they match the search scope. Treat this section as citation context, not as a curated list of the most topic-specific patents. Some patent titles may be shown in their original, non-English language where an accurate translation could not be guaranteed.
Assignee snapshot from the current evidence set
The applicants below are visible in this query result. Because the evidence set is relatively small, read this section as a directional snapshot rather than a full competitive ranking.
Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Co. Ltd
With 7 patent records, Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power holds the top position and is classified as a new entrant on recent-window momentum — meaning its filings are concentrated in the most recent period rather than spread across the full decade. Its technology emphasis spans G21C 1 (reactor design), G21D 3 (plant systems), and G05B 9 (control and regulating systems), reflecting the integrated, licensing-ready safety portfolio expected of a national utility pursuing SMR export certification.
patent records: 7Westinghouse Electric Corp
Westinghouse Electric Corp holds 6 patent records and concentrates its coverage on G21C 15 (reactor coolant systems) and G21C 9 (emergency core cooling / passive safety), with additional G21C 1 (reactor design) records. No momentum data is available for Westinghouse in the recent-window analysis, suggesting its records are distributed across a broader timeframe rather than clustered in the latest filing surge. Its passive-safety focus aligns with the AP-series and SMR design lineages for which it is seeking regulatory approval in multiple jurisdictions.
patent records: 6Frequently asked questions
The corpus covers 14 patent families in scope. This is a relatively small, specialist corpus reflecting the niche intersection of SMR design and formal safety or licensing claims.
Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Co. Ltd leads with 7 patent records, followed by Westinghouse Electric Corp with 6. Together they represent the visible first tier in this space.
The evidence shows zero filings in 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021. This gap coincides with a period when global SMR licensing frameworks were still being developed and no major regulator had issued a design approval, reducing the incentive to file safety-specific patent claims. The subsequent 2024 surge aligns with renewed regulatory momentum.
South Korea is the primary filing office with 8 records. WIPO PCT, China, Europe (EPO), and the United States each show 3–4 records, and Canada holds 1. This distribution reflects the home markets of the visible assignees and the jurisdictions with active SMR licensing programmes.
The collaboration evidence shows no joint-applicant filings within the current corpus. Safety IP appears to be filed on a single-assignee basis, which may reflect deliberate ownership strategies to retain licensing leverage.
Four IPC branches each hold only one record: B65G (conveying and material handling), E21B (earth and rock drilling), F17C (pressure vessels and gas storage), and F24T (geothermal systems). Of these, F17C is most directly relevant to SMR licensing given pressure-boundary integrity requirements, and G06F (digital data processing) remains underweighted relative to its regulatory importance for digital I&C validation.
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Disclaimer. This page is generated from Patsnap Eureka data drawn from a limited snapshot of global patent and scientific-literature records, and is provided for general information and reference only.
Patent data carries inherent limitations: recent filings (typically the most recent 18–24 months) are under-counted due to standard publication lag; counts may be reported at either a patent-family or a patent-record basis and are not always directly comparable; classification, applicant-name, and citation data may contain errors, duplicates, or omissions; and the underlying search query defines and constrains the scope shown. As a result, the analysis may be incomplete or inaccurate and may not reflect the full technology landscape.
Nothing on this page constitutes an exhaustive prior-art, novelty, freedom-to-operate, or validity search, nor does it constitute legal, financial, investment, or professional advice, and it should not be relied upon as such. Any patent, commercial, or strategic decision should be verified independently and reviewed with qualified patent, legal, and domain professionals. Patsnap makes no warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy, completeness, or fitness for any particular purpose of the information presented.