Providing high-temperature industrial heat is a key decarbonization challenge. Nuclear small modular reactors (SMRs) could meet this decarbonization challenge, but no technoeconomic analyses of their potential exist. We quantify the technoeconomic potential of five SMR types for displacing natural gas providing process heat for 357 industrial facility processes across five US states. At 2021 US gas prices, we find no SMRs are economically viable when providing process heat alone. 28 SMR modules (5.6 GW_th) and 256 modules (28.6 GW_th) are economically viable at avoided gas costs of $8 and $16/MMBtu, respectively. By also participating in wholesale power markets, we find up to 113 industrial facility processes (6% of industrial demand) could be economically served by 33.9 GW_th of SMRs, avoiding 4 million tons of CO₂ emissions annually at 2021 US gas prices. Our analysis identifies key criteria that drive SMR economic viability, including thermal demand quantity and quality matching.

提供高温工业热是一项关键的脱碳挑战。核小型模块化反应堆 (SMR) 可以应对这一脱碳挑战，但尚无对其潜力的技术经济分析。我们量化了五种 SMR 类型取代天然气的技术经济潜力，为美国五个州的 357 个工业设施流程提供工艺热量。以 2021 年的美国天然气价格计算，我们发现仅提供过程热的 SMR 在经济上是不可行的。28 个 SMR 模块（5.6 GW _th）和 256 个模块（28.6 GW _th）在经济上是可行的，可避免的天然气成本分别为 8 美元和 16 美元/MMBtu。通过参与批发电力市场，我们发现多达 113 个工业设施过程（工业需求的 6%）可以通过 33.9 GW 经济地提供服务_{按 2021 年美国天然气价格计算}，每年减少 400 万吨 CO ₂排放。我们的分析确定了推动 SMR 经济可行性的关键标准，包括热需求数量和质量匹配。