Nuclear players to present SMR plans to ministers

NuScale Power and Rolls-Royce among companies reportedly invited to talks with government over the next few weeks

Major players in the nuclear industry have been summoned by the government to present their plans for the development of small modular reactors (SMRs), the Telegraph has reported.

Companies including NuScale Power, Rolls-Royce, Hitachi and Westinghouse have all been invited to meet with ministers over the next several weeks, according to the paper.

The liaisons are likely to relate to a competition launched by the government in March 2016 to find the “best value” SMR design for the UK.

The results of the first stage of the competition, which aims to gauge market interest among developers, utilities and investors, were originally due to be revealed last autumn, alongside a roadmap for the development of SMRs. Almost a year later, neither has yet appeared.

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) would neither confirm nor deny the meetings reported by the Telegraph.

A spokeswoman for the department told Utility Week: “We are currently considering next steps for the SMR programme and we will communicate these in due course.”

She added that evidence gathering for the competition has “necessarily taken time” and that it is important for the department to “invest time now to make the right strategic decision for the UK – a decision that could have implications stretching many decades into the future”.

US-based SMR developer NuScale Power also declined to comment directly, although chief commercial officer Tom Mundy said in a statement: “SMRs represent a significant, multi-billion-pound manufacturing, energy and infrastructure opportunity for the UK.

“NuScale’s vision is to see SMRs rolling off UK production lines and generating low-carbon power for UK homes within the next decade.

“What we need now is clear direction from government, and as such we welcome this opportunity to show why NuScale’s SMR represents the best value option for the UK,” he added.

The slow progress of the competition has led to growing concern in the nuclear industry that the UK could miss out on a one-off chance to take a leading role in a new global market for SMRs.  

The Nuclear Industry Association’s (NIA) head of policy Peter Haslam told Utility Week: “The NIA and its members have been frustrated that the first stage of the government’s SMR competition has been left hanging in the air, and that the roadmap promised last autumn has not been forthcoming.

“With a potential global market for SMRs valued at £250 to £400 billion, SMRs could play a pivotal role in the government industrial strategy plans and a decision on the future of the competition must be taken soon if the energy, industrial and export opportunities of a UK SMR are to be realised.

“Otherwise that promising opportunity could be lost to others, including the US, Canada and China, who are progressing with SMR development programmes.”

Appearing before the House of Lords’ science and technology committee in March, former energy minister Jesse Norman told members that the competition would be “back on track” on soon.

Despite his assurances, the committee described the hold up as “worrying” and said it did not detect “any urgency from the government to make a decision”.

Not everyone was as troubled by the delay. Speaking to Utility Week around the same time, Energy Technologies Institute (ETI) nuclear strategy manager Mike Middleton said the government was right to avoid a quick decision on SMRs. He said the slow progress of the competition showed ministers were having a “long hard scrub” at the evidence.

The list of eligible participants for the competition was accidentally published by BEIS for several hours in May last year.