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The UK government is "looking closely" at the French model of using nuclear power to help balance the electricity system, Lords have heard today.
Giving evidence to the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee, professor David Mackay, the chief scientific advisor to the Department of energy and Climate Change (Decc), said his team is studying the flexible use of nuclear power by the French as a possible option to help balance the UK electricity system.
He added: “Using nuclear power stations for balancing services reduces their lifetime output of electricity and slightly increases the cost of nuclear but it does provide a valuable service to the rest of the system.”
Mackay also said the government will continue its research into small modular reactors -reactors rated less than 500MWe – because they “might lend themselves more even more to that kind of load and they might be easier to finance than the current large reactors on the drawing board”.
Keith Parker, chief executive of the Nuclear Industry Association (NiA), last month told Utility Week the government had to “think creatively about potential applications” of nuclear reactors and that SMRs “must be considered”.
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