Great British Nuclear - can it live up to its aspirations?
Dalton Nuclear Institute
We bring together the UK's largest academic nuclear research capability
Responding to today's launch of Great British Nuclear, Professor?Adrian Bull MBE, Chair in Nuclear Energy and Society?at?The University of Manchester's Dalton Nuclear Institute , said:
“Today’s announcements mark welcome progress towards new nuclear in the UK. In particular, over ￡50 million for advanced reactors and over ￡20 million for advanced fuels shows commendable commitment to thinking beyond just today’s technologies. But – as so often – there seems to be a mismatch in places between the aspirations and the reality.
“We’re told that Great British Nuclear will ‘drive rapid expansion of nuclear power at an unprecedented scale and pace’. Well, Britain built 11 new nuclear power stations (26 reactors in all) in just 15 years from 1956. I don’t see a plan that exceeds that ambition.
“A massive nuclear programme is needed to secure the UK’s energy independence and hit the UK’s Net Zero target. In 18 months it’ll be 2025 – the mid point between the millennium and 2050 – and we’ve not yet made much progress on many areas of decarbonisation. Time is very short!
“The SMR competition launches today and we’re?promised a down-selection by August so there is a lot of work to be done in 6 weeks. If that target is actually met, it’ll be a positive sign things are moving at real pace?and the government is serious about its 2050 commitments.”
Living in Ireland
1 年SMRs seem to feature again. I still wonder if they will ever actually happen and be economic. Though they do seem to be getting bigger and bigger so perhaps the economics will improve. The latest iterations are practically as big as magnox reactors so perhaps the UK has actually already successfully rolled out an SMR fleet in the past.
Head of Systems Assessment at Dalton Nuclear Institute of the University of Manchester
1 年It is difficult to disapprove of the Great British Nuclear announcement until it is considered in the context of the size and urgency of the response to a crucial part of the stated policy of the UK achieving Net Zero by 2050.?The first Competition for funding of Small Modular Reactors was announced on the 17th of March 2016, and various phases have passed, only for another ‘Competition’ to be announced for GBN 7 years later.?In the area of High Temperature Gas Cooled Reactors, in July 2021, it was announced that ‘the Programme will focus on High Temperature Gas Reactors with the ambition for this to lead to a HTGR demonstration by the early 2030s at the latest’.?Two years has passed and while two HTGR projects are named in the GBN announcement, the timescale is nowhere mentioned.? While wishing GBN every success, the current programme could be more easily be described and ‘dabbling’ rather than ‘driving’, and GBN’s key mission must surely be to convince the Government that a drastic ‘change of gear’ is needed if the ‘early 2030s’ (and indeed 2050!) are not to pass sedately by with the UK failing in its Net Zero mission.?