BEIS to get ‘back on track’ with SMRs

Government has found it difficult to assess the merits of entries into its competition for small modular nuclear reactors

The government hopes to get its delayed nuclear research competition for small modular reactors (SMRs) “back on track” soon, energy minister Jesse Norman has told the House of Lords.

In March last year, the now disbanded DECC (department for energy and climate change) launched a competition to identify the best value small modular reactor (SMR) design for the UK.

Giving evidence on Tuesday to a House of Lords science and technology committee inquiry into priorities for nuclear research and technologies, energy and industry minister Jesse Norman admitted that the competition timetable had been derailed.

“It had been expected that it would be finished by the end of last year. The change of government had disturbed the timetable but we are certainly hopeful about getting it back on track soon.”

Read Utility Week’s analysis: ‘SMRs still in the starting blocks’

Refusing to be drawn on whether the competition’s results would be would be released before Easter, Norman said that the backers of SMR projects needed to demonstrate that their designs were potentially marketable.

“We want to see where the market is developing before committing public money to it,” he said.

He also hinted that assessing competition entries had proved more difficult than expected, explaining that it was “quite hard” to compare the different technologies and designs which had been submitted.

Craig Lucas, director of science and innovation for climate and energy at Department for business, energy and industrial strategy said: “The time being put in reflects the complexity.”

However, Norman rejected concerns that the delay to the competition had “paralysed” work in the SMR sector. He said “We haven’t had lot of push back about blight”.

He also said that it had been a “regrettable necessity” that the withdrawal from Euratom was being carried out in tandem with the Article 50 process to exit the EU.

In a bid to reassure the Lords committee about the UK’s nuclear safety and security framework once the UK had left Euratom, Norman said that there was a “great deal of thought within government on how to deal with issues of safety and safeguarding.”

He said the government was treating the UK’s post-Euratom arrangements “extremely seriously” and that it was seeking to “maintain and even enhance” existing safeguards.