The strength of the study lies in who wrote it. Philseo Kim is a researcher focused on nuclear economics and policy. Allison Macfarlane is a former chair of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and one of the most credible voices on nuclear waste and governance. Together they bring both technical and policy lenses. Their prior work, including a 2022 analysis of SMR waste streams, already suggested that these reactors could produce more complex and larger volumes of waste than conventional nuclear plants. This paper extends that research into both costs and waste, and the picture that emerges is not encouraging.