Ahead of this week’s Spring Budget, here’s my take on what might be announced:

• Great British Nuclear to be announced to support UK nuclear industry. This is a key step to enable UK nuclear projects and the wider UK nuclear industry to flourish. The role of GBN is expected to be as a curator and facilitator for the identification of projects with DevCos leading the projects themselves, as they will be able to attract the private finance.?The hope is that following its announcement, GBN can start to put in place - at pace - the enablers to deliver the 24GW commitment in the Energy Security Strategy.
• Identifying SMRs for deployment must be a priority for the newly formed GBN. We would like to see the first priority task for the newly announced GBN to be to run a ln "accelerated approach" to ' identifying which Small Modular Reactor (SMR) technologies will be deployed and in what sequence. Once these technologies have been identified, the key will be for swift and rapid action to enable speedy delivery and implementation.
• The role of the Future?Nuclear?Enabling Fund to be confirmed. Most applications have now been reviewed but the general mood, including my own personal view, is that FNEF will be absorbed within GBN, otherwise we run the risk of running two parallel and potentially conflicting programmes.?Hopefully the choreography of FNEF and GBN and how all of this comes together is being considered.??

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