Rolls-Royce led SMR design set for green light

Industry sources say government is pursuing “detailed talks” with consortium headed up by Rolls-Royce

A long-awaited report assessing the viability of small modular reactors (SMRs) is expected to give approval to the designs developed by a Rolls-Royce led consortium of British businesses, the Telegraph has reported.

Industry sources told the paper that a techno-economic assessment of the technology has concluded that rival US designs for integral SMRs are more difficult to manufacture and maintain and not commercially viable.

The study was commissioned by the Department for Energy and Climate Change in 2015 and completed in September.

The report is expected to be published shortly alongside the results of the first phase of a competition to identify the best value SMR design for the UK as well as a roadmap for the development of SMRs. The results and the roadmap were originally due to be unveiled by the government in autumn last year, but have so far failed to materialise.

An unnamed Whitehall source told the Telegraph: “The report is not good for those companies who are committed to integral SMRs.

“Rolls has been involved with this technology in the past and realised it is not designed with the energy utility in mind because it simply isn’t commercially investible.

“It also looks as if the government has come to this view and is pursuing detailed talks with the Rolls-led SMR consortium.”

A spokesperson for the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) said: “We are currently considering next steps for the SMR programme and will communicate these in due course.”

Integral reactors feature steam generators that are integrated inside the reactor pressure vessel. Rolls-Royce led the development of the first integral reactor design during the 1980s and early 1990s and claims it is the “starting point for all subsequent integral reactor designs”.

American firm NuScale Power is also participating in the SMR competition and is planning to deploy its Integral Pressurized Water Reactor (IPWR) design in the US state of Idaho by 2026. In December, it applied for the American equivalent of a generic design assessment (GDA).

The idea behind SMRs is to bring down nuclear costs by building large numbers of small reactors within controlled factory settings. The reactors would be constructed as modules which would then be transported onsite for final assembly and could be combined to form larger power stations.

The Rolls-Royce led consortium includes Laing O’Rourke, Arup and Amec Foster Wheeler. Last month, the group published a report which claimed that SMRs could produce secure, low-carbon power at a cost of just £60/MWh. 

In July last year, BEIS accidentally published the list of eligible competitors for the first phase of the SMR competition, which will gauge market interest among developers developers, investors and utilities.