Soon, in nuclear usage, means maybe in the next ten years. Anyway, they are called small modular reactors (SMRs). Supposedly safer design that doesn't require back-up power for pumps, etc. Trade-off is that they are may lose some economies of scale on fuel efficiency. Article may be paywalled. If so, my apologies
Link: http://science.sciencemag.org/content/363/6429/806
We certainly need a reactor that can be shut down without power. A strong EMP would cause all nuclear reactors in the US to meltdown simultaneously because it would knock out the backup generators. As a matter of civil defense, we need reactors that have non-powered shutdown sequences. Not sure why this is hard. We have dead-man technology in other areas.
One of the ideas with these SMR's is that they do not require nearly as much space as current nuke plants. The idea is that you could drop a "12 pack" of them into any coal plants that you are shutting down. Maintain the same footprint but suddenly "clean" energy.
(no message)
They make sense from so many angles... including economically
Link: https://www.timesfreepress.com/news/news/story/2010/jul/15/bechtel-joins-effort-build-small-nuclear-reactors/23406/
Why don't you focus on something useful and proven...like recycling?