Rolls-Royce: Nuclear Reactors
(asked on 26th February 2024) - View Source
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of risk of declining to adopt the Rolls-Royce reactor for the future of Britain’s nuclear industry.
Answered by
Lord Callanan
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
It is our ambition to deploy up to 24 Gigawatts of civil nuclear generation by 2050, around 25% of our projected 2050 electricity demand.
GBN is running an SMR technology selection process to select those technologies best able to facilitate Final Investment Decisions in the next Parliament and be operational by the mid-2030s.
Through the Advanced Nuclear Fund, the Government has awarded up to £210m to support development of the Rolls Royce Small Modular Reactor (SMR) design. The Rolls-Royce SMR entered the Generic Design Assessment (GDA) process in March 2022, becoming the first SMR to begin UK nuclear regulation. In April 2023, the Rolls-Royce SMR progressed to Step 2 of GDA.