The Government is at a cross-roads in its policy on small modular reactors (SMRs). So far it has funded a consortium led by Rolls-Royce with over £210 million of research and development funds to develop a concept SMR design, and now, to further develop the design to the extent that it can pass the generic design assessment process. That public funding was matched with £280 million from the private sector. It has subsequently announced that Great British Nuclear will launch and administer a c...

The Government is at a cross-roads in its policy on small modular reactors (SMRs). So far it has funded a consortium led by Rolls-Royce with over £210 million of research and development funds to develop a concept SMR design, and now, to further develop the design to the extent that it can pass the generic design assessment process. That public funding was matched with £280 million from the private sector. It has subsequently announced that Great British Nuclear will launch and administer a competition in which other vendors’ technology would be assessed. What is then required is a set of pivotal decision on the actual deployment of, rather t Type: conclusion | Number: 18 | Paragraph: 105 | Response status: under_consideration Government response: The government sees SMRs as having a crucial role to play in our future energy mix as we transition to net zero and support our energy security. GBN has launched a Small Modular Reactor Technology Selection Process (TSP) to identify those c