Nuclear Power Stations

Lord Lamont of Lerwick Excerpts

Monday 24th February 2020 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Bloomfield of Hinton Waldrist]

The Government’s policy is firmly to encourage the development of both AMRs and SMRs in a number of sites, including—the noble Lord’s own passion—Trawsfynydd and the site in Cumbria. He will have seen the announcement that Rolls-Royce is looking at both sites. We are still investing a lot of R&D money in consortiums that aim to provide small nuclear reactors that contribute to the national grid, although my original Answer did not include the contribution that they could make.

[Lord Lamont of Lerwick (Con)]

My Lords, with regard to the reference by the noble Lord, Lord West, to 2035, is that not the year in which petrol and diesel vehicles will begin to be phased out? Is it not the case that at the moment those vehicles consume something like 453 terawatt hours of energy each year? Total UK electricity production is only 335 terawatt hours per year. Does that not mean that, when diesel and petrol cars and other vehicles are phased out, we will need to double electricity production? Surely that just illustrates the point that the noble Lord, Lord West, is making. With the phasing out of fossil fuel vehicles, we will need to double nuclear production in 2035—the equivalent of 20 Hinkley Point C stations. Is that really realistic?

[Baroness Bloomfield of Hinton Waldrist]

My noble friend raises a very important point, which is why we are determined to make our new nuclear projects a success and to develop small and advanced modular reactors. Our investment in hydrogen fuel cells might also assist in the development of cars powered not just by electricity but by hydrogen.