Lords call for action on nuclear plant programme

Peers predict commercial interest could wane unless government announces competition results

Commercial interest in the UK’s baby-nuclear plant programme will wane unless ministers announces the initial results of a long-awaited competition to find the best type of reactor, a committee of peers has warned.

The House of Lords science and technology select committee in a report on nuclear research, published yesterday (2 May), expresses disappointment that the government has not kept to its stated timetable for the small modular reactor (SMR) competition.

The committee says it does not “detect any urgency from the Government to make a decision” on the competition, which was launched in March 2016, backed by £250 million from the-then chancellor, George Osborne.

The committee says it is “particularly alarming” that the results of phase one of the competition, in which companies were asked to outline the benefits and risks of SMR deployment, have yet to be announced by the BEIS (business, energy and industrial strategy) department.

Warning that the failure to announce results has already had a ‘negative effect’ on the UK’s civil nuclear industry, the peers say that “if the government does not act soon the necessary high level of industrial interest will not be maintained.

“The government must publish its strategy for SMRs without delay if industrial interest is to be maintained and if commercial opportunities are not to be missed.”

The report, entitled ‘Nuclear research and technology: Breaking the cycle of indecision’, also recommends that the government should publish a techno-economic assessment of SMRs in order to make it clear whether there is a sound case for the UK to make a substantial strategic investment.

The committee’s conclusions on SMRs tie into a broader warning by the committee about the depth of the government’s commitment to the civil nuclear strategy, which ministers identified as a priority area in the recently published industrial strategy.

The peers say that for the UK to be a ‘serious player’ in developing nuclear generation technology requires both a “step change” in the level of government funding and a long term commitment by the government to provide strategic support for the civic sector.

The report also echoes a recommendation by the Commons BEIS select committee earlier today, that the UK’s membership of Euratom must not be allowed to expire without a “suitable replacement.”

And it endorses a suggestion by Lord Hutton, chair of the Nuclear Industries Association (NI(A) and a former trade and industry secretary, that the government should convene a working group of industry and government representatives to develop a plan to preserve the essential benefits of Euratom.

Commenting on the Lords report, NIA chief executive Tom Greatrex, said: “The NIA shares the frustration of the Committee that the first stage of the government’s SMR) competition has been left hanging in the air, and that the roadmap industry was promised last autumn seems to have got lost somewhere in Whitehall.

“With a potential global market for SMRs valued at £250-£400 billion, the Government must provide clarity as soon as possible after the general election if the energy, industrial and export opportunities of a UK SMR are to be realised.

For more information on SMRs, read this Utility Week analysis.