A report by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers claims that the commercialisation of SMR’s could resurrect the UK’s civil nuclear programme
The UK should focus on developing Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) to secure the country’s future nuclear industry post-Brexit according to a new report by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.
The ‘Leaving the EU, the Euratom Treaty Part 2: A Framework for the Future’ report – which outlines a number of possible pathways the UK government could take to leaving the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) – argues that SMRs could present the UK with key export opportunities and return the country to the international nuclear reactor supply arena.
The Institution is also calling for the UK to develop its own Safeguarding Office, to ensure the country conforms to international rules on safety and non-proliferation, but says the UK should remain an associate member of Euratom for the specific purpose of R&D.
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Dr Jenifer Baxter, Head of Energy and Environment and lead author of the report, said: “The UK’s departure from the EU and Euratom is likely to be complicated and difficult, but it also presents the country with an opportunity to reshape its nuclear industry and once again become a world-leading innovator in nuclear technology. Political parties need to outline their vision for the future of the UK nuclear industry as part of their manifestos.
“In the 1950s the UK was the first country to develop a civil nuclear programme, but we have since fallen behind countries such as China, France and Canada. Pushing ahead on the demonstration and commercialisation of SMRs would be a key way for the UK to once again become a world leader in the field. This would not only help to meet future energy demand, but also to develop skills, local employment and build future export business”
The report makes four key recommendations
- That the UK government adopts the framework approach to safeguarding, Nuclear Co-operation Agreements, Research & Development (R&D) and regulation for the nuclear industry, replacing mechanisms lost as a result of the UK’s departure from Euratom
- That the UK works towards developing a new nuclear Safeguards regime, through the development of a UK Safeguarding Office.
- That the UK government remains an associate member of Euratom for the specific purpose of research & development activities in the nuclear sector.
- That the UK government should include within the UK’s nuclear sector strategy a long term commitment to nuclear R&D programmes including, a pathway for developing Small Modular Reactors (SMRs).
Very commendable thoughts from I.Mech.E., nice to see some constructive views on the post-Brexit world. Nuclear developments independent of the EU seem essential to the UK future. The EU tried to stop nuclear power in the UK based on trumped-up subsidy charges.
The SMR looks like the best idea in nuclear for several decades! Could the UK be resurrected as an industrial leader after a generation of “selling off the silverware” ????
The Engineer has made this point before, SMRs would seem to be the way forward, you wind up with a standardised design which makes operation and maintenance so much easier than our previous reactors which were all effectively prototypes. It would put us back into the nuclear industry in a good way and has to be a better bet than the current Hinckley project, whose costs seem to be creeping ever upwards before they’ve even really started. The only downside would be that if not carefully designed we could wind up with the same flaws across our whole installed reactor base. Mind you with the multiple prototype scenario of the past you wound up with a whole series of different problems to solve!
after a generation of “selling off the silverware” ????
The grocer’s daughter and her ilk not only sold it: they sold off and/or neutered much of the ability to create any new industrial/manufacturing/innovation scenario: “shopping centres and call centres” being, according to them, much more important? Lunatics, asylum, chickens, home, roost, -add your own?
There are 2 x 311 MW, GE-Hitachi PRISMs [Power Reactor Innovative Small Modular] units on offer at Sellafield for the disposition of the UK’s plutonium stockpile. From the fuel it will create in rendering the plutonium useless as a bomb-making material, it will operate at a 90% capacity factor for its design life of 60 years. Its [24/7], low-carbon electrical output would supply all of the electricity [domestic, industrial, commercial, etc.] for over 887,000 people. That’s [more than] all of the Liverpool Urban Area population – for the next 60 years.
Data from the ‘renewableUK’ website, the leading UK database for all things wind powered, has facts and figures that can show the average size of the 6,021 onshore wind turbine size is 1.68 MW, operating at a capacity factor of 27.3% with a lifespan of 25 years.
To supply the same amount of [intermittent] electricity as the PRISM installation – from a site the size of a large supermarket – would require 1,220 average-sized onshore wind turbines. And they would only last 25 years, so another 1,220 + [40% of 1,220] would be needed to supply for 60 years – that’s the intermittent output 2,928 onshore wind turbines.
Low tech wind farms and solar panels are a waste of money. Move the subsidy for them to high tech SMR research before it’s too late.