Britain could run out of electricity by the 2030s

The United Kingdom could run out of electricity in the 2030s if His Majesty’s Government doesn’t build new nuclear power plants.

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Britain’s existing power plants will not meet the nation’s demands for electricity?in the 2030s, Tom Samson told a parliamentary committee on 23 November 2022. Samson heads Rolls Royce’s Small Modular Reactor (SMR) project, The Financial Times?reports.

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“The next crisis that is on our horizon in this country is [electricity] capacity,” Samson told parliament. Samson thinks Britain’s power supply could shrink when aging nuclear reactors and gas-fired powered plants leave service in the 2030s.

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Additionally, the UK could face serious electricity shortages if weather prevents wind and solar plants from making power, Samson predicts. Another reason for shortages could be His Majesty’s Government’s decision to eliminate all coal-burning power plants in 2024.

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Can Small Modular Reactors Power Britain?

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Samson wants parliament to finance small modular nuclear reactors to power Britain’s grid. Rolls Royce is leading a consortium that could build SMRs in the UK. The SMRs will use the nuclear technology that powers the Royal Navy’s nuclear submarines to generate electricity in small reactors.

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An SMR is a smaller nuclear reactor they build in a factory. In contrast, they build traditional nuclear reactors onsite, which is expensive and time consuming. One advantage to SMRs is that they can haul an SMR to a site on a truck, a train, or a ship.

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Another advantage is that SMRs take up far less space. For example, Holtec International’s SMR-160 reactor?could generate 160 megawatts (160 million watts) of electricity, yet it only takes up 4.5 acres of space.?In contrast, the main turbine hall at the Darlington Nuclear Generating Station?in Ontario is almost six football fields (580 meters) long, 137 meters wide, and 12 stories (45 meters) high.

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Hence, you could use SMRs to replace coal and gas-burning power plants. The great advantage to nuclear power plants is they generate no greenhouse gases that increase global warming. Another advantage of nuclear power is that it does not use Russian natural gas, which finances Vladimir Putin’s idiotic war effort.

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Parliament will need to finance British SMRs, The Financial Times speculates. One solution could be to add a surcharge to?Britons’ electric bills.

Small Modular Reactors in Industry

British chemical giant Ineos could use SMRs to power its giant Grangemouth refinery in Scotland, The Guardian?speculates.

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Ineos could use an SMR to power equipment that makes hydrogen?from water. They can use the hydrogen to power the refinery, which makes fuel and chemicals. Rolls Royce could supply the SMR that powers Grangemouth.

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Rolls Royce has nothing to do with the famous luxury cars. They sold the car business to BMW long ago. Instead, Rolls Royce builds aircraft engines and power plants. For example, Rolls Royce built the engines for the famous Spitfire and Mustang fighter planes in World War II.

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Today, Rolls Royce builds the reactors for his majesty’s nuclear submarines. That technology could power Britain in the next decade.