Plans to be announced for small reactors (SMRs)

Royce will announce that a consortium of investors will back plans for a
new smaller nuclear reactor project. As part of its 10 point green energy
plan, the government has already announced it would provide £210m in
funding if that could be matched by private capital. An announcement that
money has been raised could come as soon as Tuesday. Around 21% of
Britain’s electricity supply is provided by nuclear power. The plan is
thought to include the construction of an initial four Small Modular
Reactors (SMRs) based on the technology used in nuclear powered submarines.
These reactors will be capable of generating nearly 500 megawatt hours of
power – three times as much as much as most existing nuclear submarine submarine
reactors but more than six times less than the 3.2 gigawatts that the large
plant under construction at Hinkley Point will deliver. Hinkley is expected
to produce enough power to supply 6 million homes. However, at an expected
ultimate cost of around £2 billion each, they should cost less than a
tenth of the £20 billion each of Hinkley and an anticipated, but not yet
approved, sister plant at Sizewell in Suffolk. Industry sources say they
hope that these SMRs would be operational within a decade. Advocates of
SMRs say their smaller size means they can be built in a controlled factory
setting and installed module by module, reducing risk and cost. These
reactors are not expected to be a substitute for another large-scale
nuclear plant the government has said it is determined to approve this
parliament – but in addition. The planned locations of these SMRs is not
expected to be confirmed this week but industry sources suggest that
existing nuclear sites are the obvious candidates.

 BBC 8th Nov 2021

 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-59201945