Despite pledging £215 million to advance small modular reactors
(SMRs), Government policy on the role of SMRs in Great Britain’s
energy mix remains unclear, the Environmental Audit Committee
(EAC) warns today in a letter to the Secretary of State for
Energy Security and Net Zero.
The UK Government aims to decarbonise the GB electricity grid by
2035, and has said that nuclear energy will be necessary to
continue powering the country on occasions when there is low
renewable energy output. EAC has examined the role of SMRs in the
energy transition and notes that as a final investment decision
on the first SMR is not expected until 2029, it is unlikely that
the reactor project will be contributing generating capacity to
the grid until 2035. The Government’s recently issued Civil
Nuclear Roadmap suggests that as much as 24GW of generating
capacity could be provided by 2050. This would include energy
from fleets of SMRs, but also contemplates a path where
investment decisions could deliver generating capacity as low as
12GW, leaving the Government’s overall strategy for the sector
lacking clarity.
Evidence to the Committee also indicated that the models
contemplated for UK deployment through Great British Nuclear’s
SMR competition were likely to result in a greater amount of
waste for storage and reprocessing. EAC received some evidence
calling for regulatory processes to be streamlined to enable
swifter roll-out of SMRs, but Committee members are clear that no
compromises ought to be contemplated on regulatory safety
standards.
The Committee heard that Government clarity on investment
decisions and the commissioning of a steady stream of SMR
projects had the potential to lower the overall costs of SMR
projects as production efficiencies were realised. Industry
witnesses observed that consistency of build tended to
increase the efficiency of construction and therefore should
decrease construction costs. As no commercial orders for SMR
installations have yet been placed worldwide, the case for these
benefits is not yet proven. EAC is clear that all value for money
assessments on SMR projects undertaken within Government and
Great British Nuclear must be published for parliamentary and
public scrutiny before any decisions to commit public money are
made, and ought to be available for assessment by the National
Audit Office, without adding delay to delivery.
Clarity and consistency of build of SMRs, witnesses argued, can
also create a secure skills pipeline and supply chains. As no new
nuclear reactors in the UK have come online since 1995, EAC heard
of a ‘skills deficit’ in the UK civil nuclear sector and that
investment in skills is needed across the whole nuclear lifecycle
for SMR deployment. With a roll-out of SMRs, skills will be
needed for factory work, on-site construction, and plant
operation. Deploying SMRs without concurrent supply chain
development could hinder deployment and increase costs.
Environmental Audit Committee Chair, Rt Hon MP, said:
“As a result of the UK’s push towards nuclear SMR
technology, the UK has the opportunity to be a genuine world
leader in the manufacture of SMR nuclear capability with great
export potential. However, despite pledging hundreds of millions
of pounds in support for SMR projects and undertaking to invest
in the construction of the UK’s first SMR, the Government’s
overall vision for the sector at this stage lacks clarity:
Ministers might commission as much as 24GW in nuclear capacity by
2050, but could commission as little as 12GW. The first SMR is
unlikely to be in operation by 2035, the date Ministers have set
for decarbonising the electricity supply: so what role will SMRs
have in an energy mix dominated by renewables and supplemented by
existing and emerging large-scale nuclear?
“This uncertainty risks knock-on effects for industry
confidence: not only for investment decisions relating to the
initial build and the construction of factories to build reactor
modules, but also for the support and growth of supply chains and
skills. We simply don’t yet know how much SMRs will contribute to
electricity generation in the country, nor how much the roll-out
is likely to cost the taxpayer.
“The Committee has therefore written to the Secretary of
State for Energy Security and Net Zero to seek clarity on a
number of points relating to the Government’s policy on SMRs. I
look forward to receiving her response.”
