Abstract Steam injectors can be used in advanced light water reactors (ALWRs) for high pressure makeup water supply; this solution seems to be very attractive because of the “passive” features of steam injectors, that would take advantage of the available energy from primary steam without the introduction of any rotating machinery. The reference application considered in this work is a high pressure safety injection system for a BWR; a water flow rate of about 60 kg/s to be delivered against primary pressures covering a quite wide range up to 9 MPa is required. Nevertheless, steam driven water injectors with similar characteristics could be used to satisfy the high pressure core coolant makeup requirements of next generation PWRs. With regard to BWR application, an instrumented steam injector prototype with a flow rate scaling factor of about 1:6 has been built and tested. The tested steam injector operates at a constant inlet water pressure (about 0.2 MPa) and inlet water temperature ranging from 15 to 37°C, with steam pressure ranging from 2.5 to 8.7 MPa, always fulfilling the discharge pressure target (10% higher than steam pressure). To achieve these results an original double-overflow flow rate-control/startup system has been developed.