Britain’s going nuclear in a great way and is ahead of its rivals

Energy Secretary Grant Shapps (Image: Getty) Energy Secretary Grant Shapps has now officially launched Great British Nuclear (GBN), the agency tasked with delivering on his ambition to ‘ensure the UK steals the march’ on being the first country to commercialise Small Modular Reactors (SMRs), as outlined in the recent energy security whitepaper. Attendees’ minds will no doubt have been on recent developments across the Atlantic, where another jurisdiction is establishing its leadership in the sector. Earlier this month, Ontario – Canada’s largest province – announced the procurement of three additional SMR reactors from GE Hitachi, for a total of four, enough to power Birmingham. Pre-construction work is already underway on the first, contracted in 2021 and scheduled for completion in 2029 at an existing nuclear site. Last year, New Brunswick and Saskatchewan also committed to building SMRs, with Alberta set to follow. This fleet approach is absolutely critical for achieving the ‘M’ in SMR, allowing the huge upfront costs of design, development, and manufacturing facilities to be spread over numerous units, with each installation accelerating the learning curve. Beyond enabling the country’s clean energy transition, deploying at scale is quickly establishing Ontario as a major SMR export hub. Poland’s Orlen Synthos Green Energy is partnering on the project, in preparation for buying up to a dozen units over the next decade to reduce Warsaw’s dependence on coal and Russian gas, joining Estonia on the order list. Other companies also are forging ahead. America’s NuScale – whose first two SMRs will be completed in Idaho in 2030 – is selling to Romania and South Korea. Therein lies the threat for Great Britain’s own homegrown champions, namely Rolls-Royce SMR, which has received some £210m of public investment to develop their reactor. Prospective foreign buyers are interested in investing in live projects. President and CEO of ORLEN, Daniel Obajtek (Image: Getty) Whereas Canada and America have shovels in the ground today, Westminster is only talking about selecting a design which may receive funding ‘if demonstrated to be viable.’ Cynics might point out the previous SMR competition in 2016 was abandoned before even selecting a winner. Our prospects for capitalising on next-generation ‘advanced modular reactors’ (AMRs) with novel fuel and cooling systems – such as molten salt reactors – are similarly melancholic. The UK is a hotbed of experimentation and innovation, but despite some funding there is no framework or clarity over long-term procurement into the late 2030s, making it difficult for domestic developers to generate investment and momentum. The Government must move quickly in defining its ambitions for the sector. Is the UK prepared to properly invest in establishing itself as a genuine world leader in SMR development and export, or are we content to import the technology from abroad? If we’re committed to leadership, ordering a single reactor is woefully insufficient to achieve economies of scale. As in Ontario, a fleet approach of procuring at least four units is a baseline for attracting the billions in private capital necessary to develop domestic SMR manufacturing facilities and a nuclear supply chain capable of exporting to the EU, Asia, and Africa – or else watch those investments happen elsewhere. There’s no question about domestic demand. Replacing our 28GW of natural gas-fired generation by 2035 would alone accommodate a dozen units, much less the massive new capacity necessary for heat and transport electrification. And there is room for optimism. Labour’s most recent climate manifesto endorses SMRs, clearing the path for multi-party support. But timing is critical. Far from taking the lead, the UK is now playing catch-up. Moving fast to prepare our current and retired nuclear facilities – and eventually major industrial hubs – to host a fleet of SMRs should no doubt be atop GBN’s priorities. The agency’s relationship with the Office for Nuclear Regulation will be critical. The latter requires additional staffing and funding to conduct its work on novel technologies, with a mandate and mindset that should extend beyond assessment and explicitly support deployment. As with all infrastructure, the pace of consultations and approvals is the decisive factor in development timelines – these processes must happen concurrently and cannot wait until vendor consultations are concluded. Shapps delivered his announcement at London’s Science Museum. The occasion presented him with a tremendous prospect to add to that legacy of Britain’s scientific greatness, but the opportunity won’t last long. Alex Simakov is the Senior Research Fellow for Energy & Environment at Policy Exchange. He previously served as Policy Advisor to the Minister of Energy, Northern Development & Mines for the Province of Ontario.