The International Project on Innovative Nuclear Reactors and Fuel Cycles (INPRO) was launched in November 2000 under the aegis of the IAEA. Since then, INPRO activities have been continuously endorsed by the IAEA General Conference and by the General Assembly of the United Nations. The objectives of INPRO are to help ensure that nuclear energy is available to contribute, in a sustainable manner, to meeting energy needs in the 21st century, and to bring together technology holders and users so that they can jointly consider the international and national actions required to achieve desired innovations in nuclear reactors and fuel cycles. One of the initial tasks of the project was the elaboration, testing and validation of the INPRO methodology, which can serve as a basic tool for evaluating different nuclear energy systems within a uniform framework to assess their compliance with sustainability goals. This phase, referred to as Phase 1, continued from 2001 to 2006. This publication is a result of a collaborative project undertaken during Phase 2 of INPRO. It presents a study of the issues related to the implementation of a nuclear power programme in countries with small capacity grids.