Environmental groups have no power to stop SMR development.

For that matter, unless environmental groups are putting saboteurs inside construction projects around the world from France to China to the US, then environmental groups can't really be blamed for the failures of the past 20 years, either.

Personally, attempting to construct new nuclear, after the lessons of 1980s construction, is a big "stop hitting yourself" move as wel.

It is the usual partisan 'environmental group / greens are to blame for x/y/z'. Their 1 seat in parliament has affected government policy and the party that has been in power, with a large absolute majority for decades was powerless to stand in their way.

You could easily say the same about wind, solar, tidal, hydro, geothermal, 'clean coal' (what a joke), insulation, efficiency, large scale, local scale, interconnects etc.

But no, everyone has their one true source of planet saving energy (that they have a financial interest in) and every cent that goes to any other is destroying humanity or treason that should be punished by death.

The grid of the future will have a bit of everything, and between now and then it will have a range of temporary forms to ease the transition.