Whitehall nuclear target ‘meaningless’ without a plan

The government’s target to roll out 24GW  of nuclear generation by 2050 is “meaningless without a plan”, Rolls-Royce has warned.

Giving evidence on Wednesday (25 Januart) to the Welsh Affairs Committee’s inquiry into nuclear energy in Wales, the director of corporate and government affairs for the manufacturer’s small modular reactor (SMR) programme, Alastair Evans, was quizzed on whether the 24GW target is a “pipedream”.

“Whether it’s 24 GW or 240GW is meaningless without a plan to get there and I don’t see a plan,” he responded.

Evans said there is “certainly no lack of political will or support”, particularly in the government departments with a focus on exports such as the Department for International Trade, adding: “If we can secure one export of a pair of reactors, it would be the biggest item ever exported from the UK.”

Discussions about the costs and delivery of SMRs are though “difficult and complex and takes time, resource and effort,” he said: “If we don’t start talking it through, it will time out.”

In order for Rolls-Royce to make decisions such as whether to invest in a factory to manufacture the modular SMRs, the company must have certainty on sites that it can use so that it can start to launch environmental permit and consent processes, which are location specific, he explained.

Evans’ concern was backed up by Dame Sue Ion, former chair of the Nuclear Innovation and Research Advisory Board, who was grilled by the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee on Monday.

She said it would be “ludicrous” to go into next Parliament without a decision on the sites for SMRs: “It means we have lost the plot for running a viable, vibrant nuclear energy system in the 21^st century. We need early commitment to a fleet to give investors confidence and it needs to be done now.”