France’s state power company EDF, the world’s biggest operator of commercial nuclear power plants, sees a huge global market for small modular reactors from the next decade to replace fossil-fuel generators as countries move to meet carbon-emission reduction goals.

“I’m convinced we’ll see a market that will be considerable in the years 2030-2040 in the entire world,” Xavier Ursat, head of EDF’s new nuclear projects, said at a conference.

“We’re convinced that a lot of countries will be very late in their low-carbon strategies, and will urgently need to replace oil, coal and possibly gas-fired plants.”