The iconic British engineering giant’s Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) are about the size of two football pitches, but can provide enough power for around half a million homes (around the size of Leeds). This makes them much smaller and probably easier to build than traditional nuclear power plants, says Rolls-Royce, which could be revolutionary for the future of nuclear power.
This could also help provide a clean energy alternative, as the UK suffers from spiraling wholesale gas costs, which is having a huge negative effect on UK customers.
By boosting its homegrown energy supplies, it will greatly boost Britain’s energy security and make a future crisis less likely, experts and ministers have argued.
It comes as Britons face staggeringly high bills in the coming months, with a price cap prediction (maximum annual fee) from industry regulator Ofgem, which has warned households could have to shell out up to £4,200 by January.
While Rolls-Royce’s SMRs won’t even come close to being implemented before then, the future role that innovations in the energy mix could play looks like a big win for the UK.
This also comes after Norway, the UK’s main gas supplier, threatened to ration its energy exports, including to Britain, to prioritize its own supplies.
Conservative MP Tobias Elwood, speaking about SMRs, tweeted: “This is how the UK can generate its own power.
“But plans to make this happen are stuck in HM Treasury.
“I have secured a parliamentary debate on September 7 calling on the government to speed up this game-changing, world-leading UK initiative.”
In March, a design for the reactors was approved for the generic design assessment process with the Office of Nuclear Regulation, Environment and Natural Resources Agency Wales.
Rolls-Royce SMR chief executive Tom Samson said entering this process was an important milestone towards the goal of deploying a jet fleet.
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“It is a new concept and Rolls-Royce has a design that we must support.”
Elwood has also said that the Rolls-Royce design awaiting approval is “state of the art” and has claimed that just 60 reactors could power the entire country. Despite the plans being “stuck in the Treasury”, the Government has helped Rolls-Royce with an investment of £210m to support the development of the reactors.
Once the design is approved and the factory that makes the SMRs comes online, Rolls-Royce hopes to produce one reactor every six months.
This, he says, could create 40,000 jobs and attract more than £50bn in investment.
A potential £250bn export market is also expected, with Rolls-Royce chief technology officer Paul Stein previously telling Express.co.uk the company hopes to take a significant chunk of that market.
In total, Rolls-Royce has secured around £500m of funding for SMR and reportedly 80 per cent of the components will be made in the UK.
It plans to start producing plants in the early 2030s, with each estimated to have a power output of about a quarter of the largest traditional nuclear reactors, such as the upcoming Hinkley Point C.
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