Selection of new nuclear projects to start next year

The government has announced it will start selecting the new wave of nuclear projects it will support next year, whilst opening bidding for its £120 million fund to kickstart the programme.

The Future Nuclear Enabling Fund was launched by business and energy secretary Kwasi Kwarteng on Thursday (12 May) on a visit to the Wylfa nuclear plant in Anglesey.

The fund is designed to provide targeted government grants, which will be allocated on a competitive basis, to help nuclear construction projects to attract private investment. The projects will include small modular reactors.

This seed-corn funding will underpin the government’s ambition, outlined in prime minister Boris Johnson’s recently published British Energy Security Strategy, to approve eight new reactors by 2030 with a generation capacity of 24GW.

The government has now revealed it intends to initiate the process of selecting these projects in 2023. Negotiations will then be entered into with the “most credible” projects to enable government support to be awarded “as soon as possible”.

These projects include the Wylfa Newydd site, previous plans for which collapsed in early 2019 after the project’s then developer Hitachi suspended work.

The government is asking interested parties to register their interest in bidding for funding and inviting further information on potential future projects.

The government has also announced the appointment of an industry adviser to lead the set-up of the Great British Nuclear vehicle.

The new agency, which was also announced in the energy security strategy, is being established to help support nuclear projects through the development process.

Simon Bowen, who is taking the role of industry adviser, is a former Royal Navy officer and was most recently chief executive of nuclear at Babcock.

At the engineering services company, he was responsible for the Cavendish Nuclear business and the provision of naval base services and submarine maintenance at Devonport, Clyde and Rosyth.

Launching the fund at Wylfa, Kwarteng said: “Our new £120 million fund will push forward our plan to deploy a new fleet of nuclear power stations as part of a British nuclear renaissance.

“By encouraging new companies to come forward and build in Britain, we can spur greater competition in the market to cut development costs so consumers benefit in the long-term.

“Nuclear is central to our long-term plan bolster the UK’s energy security with cheaper, cleaner, home-grown power, while creating thousands of high-skilled jobs across our country.”

Reacting to the launch of the fund and Bowen’s appointment , Nuclear Industry Association chief executive Tom Greatrex said: “The Future Nuclear Enabling Fund is absolutely vital to get additional projects going that we need to ensure our energy security. We hope that funding will be awarded as swiftly as possible because we are losing time to cut gas imports, cut emissions and cut people’s bills.

“Simon Bowen is an excellent appointment to lead Great British Nuclear, since he brings a wealth of experience in practical delivery to the job. We look forward to working with him and with the Government to accelerate nuclear deployment and re-establish Britain’s global leadership in nuclear energy.”