Small Modular Reactors: Why are we so determined to be at the back of the queue?
The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) has just announced the winners in the competition to select suppliers of Small Modular Reactors (SMRs). GB Nuclear is supposed to be the driving force, independently choosing the latest and the best, but DESNZ has stepped in and included some of the least modern or qualified. The six are: EDF, GE-Hitachi Nuclear Energy International LLC, Holtec Britain Limited, NuScale Power, Rolls Royce SMR and Westinghouse Electric Company UK Limited. These are all old tech: no advanced modular or molten salt reactors. They are high pressure and low temperature. They are all low temperature despite DESNZs claim a couple of years ago that high temperature reactors are the future. DESNZ hopes to get around to ordering the first SMR by 2029 and actually having it running six years later. Four of the six are a long way from receiving design approval and EDF, for example, has no SMRs and has to go back to the drawing board. This should give them time to do so. None of those chosen is “rampable”, i.e. output can be varied by the Grid to match demand. Modern ones are.
Three companies (Terrestrial, Arc Cleantech and Kairos) already have design approval in the USA or Canada or expect to receive it this year and have good high temperature / low pressure designs. They can also ramp up and down to meet demand. It would seem these and other companies have been put off entering the UK market for SMRs because of the slow decision-making process. This is disputed by GB Nuclear. The Americans and Canadians are linking their SMR technical approval systems so that either regulatory authority’s approval is automatically deemed to be approval by the other. approval by the other.[4] The UK was invited to join but declined. Approvals are slow so that will automatically ensure the UK falls even further behind.
This timeline means that the UK will be trailing the US, Canada, Poland, Romania and the Baltic States in SMR development.