Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department plans to take to monitor and report on water usage by Small Modular Reactors.

Sustainable water usage is a crucial factor in the siting of any industry including small modular reactors, and for enabling a low carbon, secure energy infrastructure. The Environment Agency regulates water abstraction in England. The information provided therefore relates to England only.

Prospective operators of small modular reactors that plan to abstract water from inland or tidal waters are required, like any other operator, to apply to the Environment Agency for an abstraction licence (Apply for a water abstraction or impounding licence - GOV.UK).

The Environment Agency will assess whether the water catchment can support the proposed abstraction at the pre-application stage. If it determines that the catchment can support the abstraction, then it will issue a licence to the prospective operator, which will require monitoring and reporting of abstraction volumes. This data is used by its environmental planning teams in the strategic assessment of water resource availability.