Any marketer in sustainable energies has heard it a million times — this is the year we all go nuclear. Hell, Fast Company wrote a piece two years ago titled, “Nuclear Power… Needs Better Branding,” and Microsoft just bought 3 Mile Island to light up their AI servers.
2025 has been no different. Just search LinkedIn for “2025 Energy Predictions.” You’ll find all the pros: clean, safe, sustainable, and the cons… radioactive waste, Fukishima, (under breath) Hiroshima.
So the multi-billion dollar question: How to re-position those pesky little meltdowns and warheads? More to the point, how do you change public perception around something so terribly destructive? How do you convince the masses that some nukes are good nukes?
SMRs — that’s how. ‘What’s an SMR?’, you ask. Small Modular Reactors. The nuclear industry’s first attempt at a proper rebrand (IMO), effectively washing that nuclear stink right out of its hair. I don’t know who coined the term, or if it was an intentional head fake, but it works.
Small Modular Reactors.
They're “small,” so that must mean ‘cute,’ right? And they're “modular” so yeah, like Ikea. And they’re “reactors,” a little wink to the old brand maybe, but arguably, the most positive sounding part of the nuclear equation. And, nary a mention of the N-word.
The Small Modular Reactor, currently being developed by a handful of independent companies, as well as the GEs and Westinghouse/Hitachis, is basically just a self-contained, mini power plant that can be easily transported to support any existing grid, without all that dirty, carbon emission.
Now for all you hippy boomers* crying NIMBY, fine. You go ahead and pay too much for that nasty fossil fuel. We’ll take our cheaper, cleaner SMR juice, thank you very much.
And for all you AI proselytizers out there, this is your golden goose. No more having to apologize for your gross over-consumption — just a little SMR’ll do ya!
So what’s good SMR branding look like? Oklo Inc and TerraPower come to mind, meaning they speak to us in simple, aspirational terms that we can understand and relate to, while still respecting our intelligence. They’ve created good PR opps and they use the socials to keep the public informed. Basic brand stuff, but miles ahead of almost everyone else in the industry.
All of which is to say, the industry is real. It’s a step in the right direction from our current climate crisis, and most of the companies in this space desperately need a glow-up (pun-intended).
As responsible marketers, it’s up to us to lead the way.
*As a Gen-Xer myself, I admit that we also had a bit of nuclear-trauma. We watched ABC’s “The Day After” when we were way too young. Look it up. Nightmares for weeks.
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