Helena Perry, director of safety and regulatory affairs at Rolls-Royce SMR, said the latest approval was "The most important milestone to date in advancing deployment of Rolls-Royce SMRs in the UK". She added: "We have built fantastic momentum and the team will move directly into step three of this rigorous independent assessment of our technology - ideally positioning us to deliver low-carbon nuclear power and support the UK's transition to net zero."
SMRs would each generate 470 megawatts of electricity and cost between £2bn and £3bn initially.
Philip Bratby wrote this earlier this year about the painfully slow progress to SMRs:. Progress in the UK on SMRs has inevitably been slow.
In 2014 the UK government published a report on SMR concepts, feasibility and potential in the UK. In 2015 the government announced that it would invest at least £250 million over five years in nuclear R&D including SMRs. In 2016 the UK government called for expressions of interest in a competition to identify the best value SMR for the UK. In 2017 the government announced that the SMR competition had been closed and a new two-phase advanced modular reactor competition was launched, designed to incorporate a wider range of reactor types.
In 2021 the government also announced that it would contribute £210 million to development of the Rolls-Royce SMR. The Rolls-Royce SMR is a PWR reactor, designed for hydrogen and synthetic fuel manufacturing as well as for electricity generation.
GBN has now delayed its decision on where the first SMRs will be sited until after the next general election.
So after 10 years, it might just be possible that the UK will be in a position to start work on building the first SMR! Of course, successful development of SMRs would soon make wind and solar power redundant.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2024/07/30/rolls-royce-one-step-closer-to-smrs/
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