Labour‘s commitment to nuclear energy will include a fleet of new “mini” reactors that will mainly be built and sited in the north of England, i understands.
The Government will set out its initial priorities for Great British Energy, the new public company that will invest in clean power, before Parliament breaks up for the summer on 30 July.
Ministers including Energy Secretary Ed Miliband, see nuclear power as playing a key role in its strategy.
GB Energy will be headquartered in Scotland and have £8.3bn in capital to invest – and i understands that among its first commitments will be a pledge to order a cluster of nuclear plants called small modular reactors (SMRs).
These “mini” reactors, which can be prebuilt in factories before being shipped to site, use the same technology as larger plants but on a smaller scale.
Rolls-Royce, one of six companies vying for the first order of SMRs, is currently manufacturing and testing prototypes at the University of Sheffield’s Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre.
Potential sites for the first SMRs include Moorside at Sellafield in Cumbria, Wylfa in Anglesey in North Wales, and Oldbury in Gloucester.
Sites in Hartlepool, County Durham, and Heysham, Lancashire, are also being considered.
However, Alastair Evans, director of corporate and government affairs at Rolls-Royce SMR, says he is receiving phone calls from communities across the country wanting to a piece of the action.
“Pretty much all of our sites are in the North East and North West – they are the ones that would host SMRs, and when you come to the factories, we’re looking at sites in South Yorkshire, Teesside, Sunderland and we’re looking in those communities because they’ve got high-value experience and manufacturing heritage,” Mr Evans told i.
“It’s also where the supply chain is, we’re talking to lots of oil and gas companies who are phasing down their supply chain, how can they help us with their decades and decades of experience.
“It is a significant opportunity for the North.”
Great British Nuclear, an arms-length body set up by the previous government, is running a competition for the first design of SMRs, and Rolls-Royce submitted its plans last week.
The British company has been designing and building nuclear power systems Royal Navy submarines for more than 60 years, and Mr Evans said he was “pretty hopeful” of the new design’s success, especially under the new Labour Government.
Asked about the timeline last week, Mr Miliband told Sheffield MP Clive Betts: “Our manifesto made it clear that we support new nuclear, including at Sizewell, and we also support the SMR programme.
“Part of our challenge is to examine the legacy left to us by the last government, but he [Mr Betts] should be in no doubt about my absolute support for the SMR programme. It is important, and we will strive to keep to the timetable set out.”
While renewable energy sources such as wind, solar and tidal will have their place in meeting the UK’s future demand, the nuclear sector appears to have won the argument that the 24/7 power it provides must be in the mix in order to reduce carbon emissions to net zero by 2050.
SMRs are often described as “mini” reactors because their most notable characteristic is their size and simplicity in comparison to traditional plants.
“We are 800 lego bricks, they come together in a field, they take up about two football pitches,” Mr Evans said.
“[To build one] you’ll have two or three trucks a day arriving, a crane lifts off this module lego brick, it puts one on top of another until you’ve got about 800 in this field, then you put a shell over the top of it.”
The Rolls-Royce SMR will have the capacity to generate 470 megawatts of low-carbon energy – the equivalent of more than 150 onshore wind turbines.
Proponents argue these mini-reactors are cheaper, easier to manage and safer than a much larger site such as Sizewell in Suffolk or Hinckley Point in Somerset.
In theory, once the first SMR proves to be a success, they can be prefabricated at scale, driving down cost. Future governments would then have the flexibilty to have them dotted all over the country in their hundreds, or even thousands, in order to meet their energy needs.
Rolls-Royce has said it hopes to build its first SMR for around £2bn and then subsequent reactors could cost as little as £1bn.
By comparison, the final cost for Hinckley Point could be as much as £46bn.
i understands Mr Miliband is set to order two sets of three SMRs, though they will not be operational until 2030 at their earliest.
Rolls-Royce also has memorandums of understanding in place with Estonia, Turkey and the Czech Republic.
“Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was a real turning point in how nuclear was seen for the positive,” said Mr Evans. “I spend a lot of time talking to overseas governments, who are all looking to do SMRs.
“The energy security argument is really strong at the minute, I’ve definitely seen a shift and a change.”
Challenges remain, however. Nuclear plants have often gone way over budget and faced years of delays, while critics remain unconvinced that concerns over safety and disposal of nuclear material have been overcome.
“Nuclear does not have a right to be in the mix, it has to justify its inclusion,” Mr Evans admitted. “It has to start being delivered on time and on budget.
“If Roll- Royce SMR or any other business is suggesting costs that are not competitive in the long-term, then it’s not the right technology. We’re confident with our costs, we’re confident with our timeline, and we are genuinely being realistic on our timeline.
“We talk about our first reactor being five years, some of our competitors will say two years, which we just don’t think is realistic or credible. As an industry we’ve got to stop overpromising and underdelivering.”
Planning restrictions are a current hurdle. Currently, nuclear power plants can only be built on eight named sites. The previous Tory government was considering whether to loosen the rules so that more sites could be identified.
Labour has said it wants to make radical changes to the UK’s planning regime as part of its pledge to build 1.5 million homes over the current parliament, but the reforms could go even further.
“The Labour Party’s policies, talking about fast-tracking planning or making the planning process easier, is music to my ears, it’s very welcome,” Mr Evans added.
“There’s definitely some hope and optimism. We were working with the Tories to try and get a deal, agreement or certainty and it was just slow.
“We are pretty hopeful that Miliband and crew and that consistent support across the northern mayors means we can get this moving.
“We’ve got 750 people working on this day in day out, we just want to get on with it, quite frankly. We’ve got a design, we’ve got our regulatory approvals moving along, what we need next is an order or a commitment from a government or a utility.
“GB Nuclear have said that they intend to make decisions by the end of the year, we want them to stick to that. That’s what we are pinning our hopes and expectations on.”
Northern cities in contest for SMRs
With Labour set to give the green light to SMRs, towns and cities, particularly in the north of England are now vying for a piece of what is set to be a lucrative pie.
A new report shared exclusively with i by lobby group the Northern Powerhouse Partnership (NPP) claims that every £1 in public investment in the net zero transition will be worth £2.65 from the private sector and create an extra 168,000 jobs.
NPP argues that the North of England, which produces nearly half of the UK’s electricity, and is home to half the country’s most carbon-intensive clusters, is “uniquely vulnerable” to a botched transition to net zero.
The Humber alone represents 40 per cent of the UK’s industrial emissions.
Research carried out by Cambridge Econometrics suggests 80 per cent of the plan for industrial decarbonisation can come from private investment versus 20 per cent from the public sector.
NPP is recommending Labour commit to ordering SMRs as well as developing offshore wind and tidal supply chains, pushing ahead with carbon capture use and storage on the Mersey, Tees and Humber and retrofitting domestic and commercial buildings with locally sourced heat pumps.
“Billions in private investment is ready to flood into the North’s net-zero economy,” said Henri Murison, chief executive of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership.
“The North of England bore the brunt of the UK’s last rapid deindustrialisation – which took place without a plan to protect workers – which is why we need to stop artificially reducing emissions by moving our heavy industries overseas.
“With the right plan, delivered well, we could use the net zero transition to drive our region’s economy and close the North-South divide for good.”
South Yorkshire’s Mayor, Oliver Coppard, is looking to take full advantage of the headstart he has in Sheffield and today announced the launch of SY Energy, a partnership between the private sector and academics, in a bid to capitalise on the growth of the clean energy sector in his region.
“We’re leading the way on small modular reactors, with Rolls-Royce SMR recently selecting South Yorkshire as the home their new, multi-million pound, SMR facility,” Mr Coppard told i.
“SY Energy will build on these strengths and make our region the natural home of clean-tech businesses, both nationally and internationally.”
A spokesperson for the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero said: “Great British Energy will help make Britain a clean energy superpower, accelerating our journey to net zero through homegrown cheap energy that will boost our energy independence and tackle the climate crisis.
“This will include working closely with Great British Nuclear to strengthen Britain’s nuclear industry.
“Great British Energy will be owned by the British people, for the British people, creating jobs and building supply chains across the UK, and working with industry and trade unions to deliver clean power.”