Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what investment they are making in the research and development of small modular nuclear plants; and how many small modular nuclear plants will be operational when all coal-fired power stations are phased out.

In December 2017 Government announced up to £44m, over the next 3 years, for the Advanced Modular Reactor (AMR) Programme. The aim of this programme is to assess the feasibility of innovative reactor projects and to accelerate development of promising designs. Government also announced up to £12m for the UK Regulators to increase their capability and capacity to assess and license new designs.

The Government has committed to phasing out electricity generation using unabated coal by 2025. It is unlikely that any small modular reactor nuclear plants would be operational in the UK by this date. However, several small reactor developers have expressed an interest in entering the UK Generic Design Assessment (GDA) process in the near future. GDA is a process that enables regulators to assess new nuclear reactor designs in advance of an application to build a reactor at a specific site.