26 April 2024

UK Plans for Small and Advanced Modular Reactors

Nuclear Monitor #915

By Pete Roche; Editor of no2nuclearpower.org.uk website

In January, the UK Government published its Civil Nuclear Roadmap,[1] which supposedly sets out how it will increase nuclear generation by up to four times to 24 gigawatts (GW) by 2050 – enough to provide a quarter of the UK’s electricity needs.[2] The plans include next steps for exploring a large-scale power plant as big as Sizewell C and Hinkley Point C. (A final investment decision on Sizewell C is due to be made by the end of this year).
But the plan also includes a key role for Small Modular Reactors (SMRs).[3]

Great British Nuclear

In March last year, the Government announced the establishment of a new organisation that would be responsible for driving the delivery of new nuclear projects.[4] Called ‘Great British Nuclear’ (GBN) its first job was to launch a competition to select the best small modular reactor technologies for development. [5]

In October, GBN issued a shortlist of six companies – EDF, GE Hitachi, Holtec, NuScale, Rolls-Royce and Westinghouse who would be invited to tender for building SMRs. The six companies can now access tender documentation, allowing them to bid for potentially multi-billion-pound technology development contracts by June 2024. GBN will assess these to determine which bidders to negotiate with, before inviting those bidders to submit final tenders, with the aim of announcing successful bidders later in 2024.[6]

The chair of GBN, Simon Bowen, hopes to deliver two final investment decisions about 2028/9[7] along with the detailed design and all the regulatory approvals. He wants the first SMR online by about 2035, with more being rolled out pretty quickly after that. But they won’t be ready in time to meet the Government’s target of decarbonising electricity by 2035.

 

Nuclear Sites

There are currently 8 sites in the UK designated for new reactors under what is called a National Policy Statement. All 8 sites are also sites of existing reactors, some of which have already closed. So GBN is currently focussed on building on these sites and it has just bought back from Hitachi the Wylfa site on the Island of Anglesey, and Oldbury in Gloucestershire, for £160 million.[8] But GBN says to get to 24GW the 8 sites are simply not going to be enough.

So, the Government has consulted on a new draft Nuclear National Policy Statement,[9] which would open up far more areas as potential sites. Rather than specifying sites, developers will be asked to identify locations for reactors based on a new list of safety and environmental criteria. Only “population density” and “proximity to military activities” will rule out nuclear plants, meaning they cannot be built in areas with more than 5,000 people per square kilometre. All other criteria will be discretionary, including size, flood risk, proximity to civil airports, the natural beauty, ecological importance or cultural heritage of the site. Officials believe developers are likely to want to site plants near industrial estates needing power and heat, or in areas that have skilled workers and grid connections. If this is agreed SMRs could be built almost anywhere outside built-up areas.[10]

 

Advanced Reactors

The six successful SMR designs going forward to the next stage of the competition, are all Light Water Reactors – either Pressurised Water Reactors or Boiling Water Reactors – so similar to most current reactor-types around the world.

The Government’s ‘Ten Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution’ published in November 2020[11] also announced plans to invest up to £170 million to support Advanced Modular Reactors (AMRs). These are generally Generation IV reactors, which use novel cooling systems or fuels to offer new functionality (such as industrial process heat) and potentially a step change reduction in costs. There are a large number of reactor technologies that would fall into this category, for instance lead-cooled fast reactors (LFRs), molten salt reactors (MSRs), and High Temperature Gas Reactors (HTGRs). However, the UK Government is focussed on HTGRs.[12]

The Government is providing funding for an AMR Research, Development and Demonstration (RD&D) programme, to enable an AMR demonstration project to be built in the early 2030s. The next step of the programme aims to provide funding to 2 vendors, alongside 50% matched funding, to advance designs to at least the level of maturity required to enter the regulatory review process by March 2025.[13]

 

Scotland

Fortunately, the Scottish Government does ‘not support the building of new nuclear power plants under current technologies.’ The policy recognises that the proposed Small Modular Reactors ‘use the same nuclear fission technology as the power generating process found in larger traditional nuclear power plants and carry the same environmental concerns’, but the Scottish Nuclear Free Local Authorities (SNFLAs) were concerned that an attempt might be made by the UK Government and the nuclear industry to hoodwink parliamentarians at Holyrood into accepting claims that AMRs are somehow different.

In February, SNFLA wrote to Scotland’s Energy Minister Gillian Martin urging her not to fall for the rhetoric that so-called ‘Advanced Modular Reactors’ (AMRs) represent a step-change beyond the existing fission nuclear plants which have been plagued by failure.

SNFLA sent her a briefing on AMRs which can be found here: https://www.nuclearpolicy.info/briefings/nfla-policy-briefing-292-prospects-for-advanced-modular-reactors-in-the-uk/

The briefing concludes that: “the UK Government’s plans for AMRs will be expensive, unlikely to be able to contribute anything to our net zero goals by 2050, will still present safety and environmental concerns and will still generate nuclear waste. So, in all important aspects AMRs will not be any different from current designs”.

The Minister replied with a reassurance that the Scottish Government remains opposed to building any new nuclear power plants in Scotland ‘using current technologies’ and that this includes Small or Advanced Modular Reactors which also employ ‘traditional fission nuclear power’. The Minister agreed with the SNFLA analysis that AMRs: “will be expensive and are unlikely to be ready in time to contribute towards Scotland’s ambition of being Net Zero by 2045” and makes plain that the Scottish Government holds a similar view to the SNFLAs that ‘significant growth’ in renewables and storage provides ‘the best pathway to net zero by 2045’.[14]

 

HALEU

AMRs will require fuel with a higher enrichment level than existing reactors. Natural uranium contains about 0.7% of the ‘fissile’[15] isotope of uranium, U-235. This must be ‘enriched’ (for example, by use of a centrifuge) to 3.5-5% for a chain reaction to be sustained in a PWR or BWR. AMRs require High Assay Low Enriched Uranium (HALEU) is uranium enriched to 5-20%.

Currently, Russia is the only country that can supply commercially viable HALEU. So, the UK Government is planning to spend £300m on supporting domestic production of HALEU fuel.[16] The UK Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, Claire Coutinho, said this will weaken the Kremlin’s grip. But this is somewhat misleading. HALEU is only currently used in the small number of reactors that produce medical isotopes and for a very small number of prototype advanced reactors. So, any dependence on Russia is trivial compared to the dependence on Russia for material for fuel for PWRs and BWRs. Given that, worldwide, AMRs are unlikely to be built in significant numbers till after 2040 at the earliest by which time the agenda to reduce dependence on Russia may well be very different, this seems a strange and speculative commitment of a significant amount of public money.[17] The Capenhurst site in Cheshire, in North West England, will most likely enrich the uranium. [18] and the Westinghouse Springfields site near Preston, also in North West England, is likely to fabricate the fuel.[19]

 

Nuclear Waste, SMRs and AMRs

A new report from the UK Government’s Committee on Radioactive Waste Management (CoRWM) has called for the management of spent fuel and radioactive waste from small and advanced modular reactors to be considered when selecting technologies for investment, further development, construction and operation.[20] This must involve addressing the uncertainties about such management at an early stage, to avoid costly mistakes which have been made in the past, by designing reactors without sufficient consideration of how spent fuel and wastes would be managed, and also to provide financial certainty for investors regarding lifetime costs of operation and decommissioning.

CoRWM says there is little published material from the promoters and developers of new reactor types to demonstrate that they are devoting the necessary level of attention to the waste arisings. It is clear that different types of reactor, ranging from those which are very similar to current light water reactors (LWR), through to those using exotic fuels about which little is known, will present highly variable levels of confidence as to how the spent fuel and waste will be managed and ultimately disposed of. The Committee adds “it is not necessarily the case that all types of spent fuel and radioactive waste will be suitable for disposal in a geological disposal facility (GDF), at least without potentially difficult prior treatment processes.”.[21]

 

Generic Design Assessment process

In the UK, the nuclear regulators – the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR), the Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales (NRW) – undertake a process called the ‘Generic Design Assessment’ (GDA), to look at the safety, security and environmental implications of new reactor designs before an application is made to build that design at a particular site. The GDA process has 3 steps: 1. Initiation; 2. Fundamental assessment and 3. Detailed assessment.[22]

 

Rolls Royce SMR

The Rolls-Royce SMR was the first SMR (although it is not particularly small at 470MW) to enter the GDA process. It entered Step 1 of the GDA Process on 1 April 2022. Step 1 is the project initiation stage of the design assessment process. It involved discussions to ensure a full understanding of the requirements and processes that will be applied, readiness of the Requesting Party (RP) to begin Step 2 and a review of the RP’s security and Quality Assurance (QA) arrangements. In April 2023, the regulators started Step 2 – a 16-month assessment of the fundamental acceptability of the Rolls-Royce SMR design for deployment in Great Britain. Step 2 is expected to take until July 2024. After that Step 3 – the detailed assessment – could take around another 2 years.[23]

In November 2021, the UK government provided funding of £210 million to help Rolls Royce further develop its design.[24]

 

Holtec SMR-300

In December 2023, the UK Government awarded Holtec Britain £30 million of grant funding to help the Company complete the first two steps of the GDA for their SMR-300 reactor.[25]The Regulators have now been asked by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero to begin the GDA.[26] Presumably Holtec and ONR have decided not to commit to the third step of the GDA until the winners of GBN competition are known.

South Korea’s Hyundai Engineering & Construction (Hyundai E&C), Balfour Beatty and engineering company Mott MacDonald, have teamed up with Holtec.[27] Now the British arm of Holtec International is launching a competition to find a site for a £600 million factory in Britain to build SMRs.[28] Local authorities and businesses will be invited to submit expressions of interest to host the factory.

 

GE Hitachi BWRX-300

In January 2024, GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy (GEH) was awarded £33.6 million  – to support it in developing its BWRX-300 SMR in the UK. [29] The design has now entered the GDA process.[30] Again it will only be the first two steps of the process for now. ONR says it is up to investors, developers and vendors to decide whether the shorter two-step GDA gives them enough confidence to proceed with procuring a site, setting up a licensee organisation, and start to place contracts for components and construction activities.

 

Westinghouse AP300s

In February 2024, Westinghouse formally submitted an application to the UK Government for approval to enter its AP300 into the GDA process.[31]

The Westinghouse Electric Company signed an agreement with Community Nuclear Power, Ltd. (CNP) to deploy its AP300 reactors on Teesside in North-east England.[32] The proposal is to build 4 SMRs on the north bank of the River Tees, not far from the Hartlepool Nuclear Power Station, producing 1.5GW of power. Lord Houchen, the Tory mayor of Tees Valley, says of the project: “For the first time in British history, the taxpayer is not involved.”[33]

In terms of the practicalities, Westinghouse only announced the design last May so the likelihood is that it’s at an early stage. Prof Steve Thomas says the AP300 only has the slightest chance of being cheaper per KW than the AP1000 if significant features are left off. The AP1000 was a scaled up version of AP600 which got NRC safety approval in 1998. Westinghouse applied to NRC in 2002 for approval of the AP1000 saying it would be easy (a year or two) because it was just a scaled-up version of an approved design. But the NRC didn’t give final approval until 2011. According to NS Energy the project is in accordance with the recently published UK Government Alternative Routes to Market for New Nuclear Projects and complementary to Westinghouse’s participation in the GBN competition.[34]

Chris Goodall, in his Carbon Commentary Blog said: “The Tees Valley SMR plan is said to have a budget of £10bn, which makes it almost as expensive per unit of electricity output as the full size reactors in construction in France and the UK.”[35]

There have been no further mentions in the UK media of the other two reactors shortlisted by GBN – EDF’s NUWARD reactor and NuScale’s VOYGR reactor.

 

AMRs – X-Energy

Following the release of the UK Government’s Civil Nuclear Roadmap, Carol Tansley, vice president of UK new build projects at X-energy, expressed her delight in a quote in the Government Press Release.[36]

X-Energy is keen to build some of its Xe-100 HTGRs at the Hartlepool site in North East England where there is currently an AGR station due to close in 2026. X Energy says they can be up and running by 2030 or soon after.[37] The UK Nuclear Industry Association says Hartlepool is the ideal place to support new advanced nuclear reactors and “usher in a revolution in industrial production”. Nuclear can replace the burning of fossil fuels by heavy industry to generate home-produced electricity, and hydrogen or high-grade steam for industry. “New advanced nuclear reactors designed to generate very high temperatures are here and ready for the challenge. Hartlepool is the place to prove it can be done. It has a site designated for new nuclear development. It has the heavy industries that would be customers for heat, power and hydrogen. Lastly, it has a skilled workforce ready, willing and able to deliver the next generation of nuclear power.”[38]

X-Energy makes some very powerful claims about the safety of its HTGR saying its design is “meltdown-proof ‘walk-away’ safety, and the most robust encapsulated fuel, our approach is the safest and most secure of the Gen-IV approaches.” This gives a misleading impression of the safety of HTGRs.[39] They do not raise the same safety issues as PWRs and BWRs but raise a different set of issues.[40]

X-energy UK Holdings, a subsidiary of US-based X-energy Reactor Company, is working with Cavendish Nuclear (part of Babcock).[41] In April 2024 it was announced that the two companies would receive £3.34m in government funding to advance their plans. X-energy said it would also match the government’s funding, which has been awarded through the Future Nuclear Enabling Fund (FENF), to bring the total investment pot to £6.68m overall. The companies said they would use the funds to develop UK-specific deployment plans for AMRs, including an assessment of domestic manufacturing and supply chain opportunities, constructability, modularisation studies, and fuel management. The Companies’ long-term plans include the development of a multi-billion-pound, 12-reactor plant at Hartlepool, which they hope to have operational by the early 2030s. They envisage the project as the first in a future fleet of up to 40 advanced small modular Xe-100 reactors.[42]

 

Newcleo

Newcleo has proposed building small modular lead-cooled fast reactors in the UK which would use MOX fuel.[43] But the Civil Nuclear Roadmap says the Government does not support the use of plutonium stored at Sellafield by AMRs whilst high hazard reduction activities are being prioritised. Now Newcleo has dropped plans to build one of its reactors in Cumbria (near Sellafield) but will build in France instead.[44] But it is still talking about building 20 lead-cooled fast reactors in the UK in the future.[45]

In April 2024 the Nuclear Industry Association announced that it had applied for a justification decision for Newcleo’s lead-cooled fast reactor, the LFR-AS-200. Evaluation of potential benefits and detriments is required for in-principle justification of any new nuclear practice. Justification is a regulatory process which requires a Government decision before any new class or type of practice involving ionising radiation can be introduced in the UK. This is the first ever application for justification of an advanced nuclear technology in the UK. The UK Government has confirmed that the application has been accepted for consideration, and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs will support the Secretary of State in their role as the justifying authority responsible for the justification decision. Stefano Buono, Newcleo Chairman and CEO, says he is aiming to deliver our first of a kind commercial reactor in the UK by 2033.[46]

Newcleo has commissioned Nuclear Transport Solutions (NTS) (part of the UK Government’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority) to carry out feasibility studies on the transport of mixed plutonium-uranium oxide (MOX) fuel.[47]

 

Conclusions

The UK has been trying to push for a so-called nuclear renaissance since November 2005 when Tony Blair said he was putting nuclear power at the centre of a new government energy review. Today, 19 years later, only one new nuclear station is under construction at Hinkley Point C in Somerset, and the first reactor is now not expected to start operating until at least 2029 – more likely 2031. It remains to be seen whether Small or Advanced Modular Reactors can make any progress.

In 2005 Professor Gordon Mackerron, writing in the Observer, said that a worst-case scenario following a commitment to nuclear new-build would be a sterilisation of non-nuclear investment while the nuclear programme itself stalled.[48] Things over the past 20 years may not have been quite that bad – the UK has at least been building some renewables – but not nearly enough. The danger from a climate change point of view is that we are now going to perpetuate this problem – fail to revive nuclear power but also fail to give our full attention to developing renewables and energy efficiency.

 

[1] Civil Nuclear: Roadmap to 2050, Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, January 2024 https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/659fb57ae8f5ec000f1f8b78/6.8610_DESNZ_Civil_Nuclear_Roadmap_report_print-version.pdf

[2] UK Government Press Release 11th January 2024 https://www.gov.uk/government/news/biggest-expansion-of-nuclear-power-for-70-years-to-create-jobs-reduce-bills-and-strengthen-britains-energy-security

[3] Edie 11th January 2024 https://www.edie.net/uk-government-sets-out-plans-to-quadruple-nuclear-generation-capacity-by-2050/

[4] UK Government Press Release 30th March 2023 https://www.gov.uk/government/news/shapps-sets-out-plans-to-drive-multi-billion-pound-investment-in-energy-revolution#full-publication-update-history

[5] Great British Nuclear: Overview https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/great-british-nuclear-overview/great-british-nuclear-overview

[6] GBN Blog 22nd March 2024 https://greatbritishnuclear.blog.gov.uk/2024/03/22/three-months-into-the-year-and-three-big-steps-forward/

[7] BBC Today Programme, Radio4 11th March 2024 https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001x4n5 (From 16:44)

[8] Spring Budget 2024, HM Treasury 6th March 2024 https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/65e8578eb559930011ade2cb/E03057752_HMT_Spring_Budget_Mar_24_Web_Accessible__2_.pdf

[9] National Policy Statement for new nuclear power generation: new approach to siting beyond 2025 – consultation document, DESNZ 11th Jan 2024 https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/approach-to-siting-new-nuclear-power-stations-beyond-2025

[10] Times 11th Jan 2024 https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/nuclear-power-plants-built-uk-plans-2024-rv5qxhzg2

[11] UK Government 18th November 2020 https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-ten-point-plan-for-a-green-industrial-revolution

[12] Advanced Nuclear Technologies, UK Government Policy Paper, 15th Aug 2023, https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/advanced-nuclear-technologies/advanced-nuclear-technologies

[13] Civil Nuclear: Roadmap to 2050, Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, January 2024 https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/659fb57ae8f5ec000f1f8b78/6.8610_DESNZ_Civil_Nuclear_Roadmap_report_print-version.pdf

[14] NFLA 20th Feb 2024 https://www.nuclearpolicy.info/news/holyrood-minister-says-there-will-be-no-advanced-modular-reactors-in-scotland/

[15] Reactors need fissile material top sustain a chain reaction, i.e., material that can undergo nuclear fission when struck by a neutron of low energy

[16] UK Government Press Release 14th January 2024 https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-invests-in-high-tech-nuclear-fuel-to-push-putin-out-of-global-energy-market

[17] DESNZ 7th Jan 2024 https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-invests-in-high-tech-nuclear-fuel-to-push-putin-out-of-global-energy-market

[18] Chemical Engineer 11th Jan 2024 https://www.thechemicalengineer.com/news/uk-declares-biggest-nuclear-revival-in-70-years-with-plans-for-new-reactors-and-fuel-production/

[19] Lancashire Post 12th Jan 2024 https://www.lep.co.uk/news/environment/preston-nuclear-site-poised-to-produce-new-fuel-technology-that-will-help-power-uk-4476332

[20] Development of Small Modular Reactors and Advanced Modular Reactors – implications for the management of higher activity wastes and spent fuel, CoRWM, Feb 2024, https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/65c26c9ca6838e000d49d589/corwm-smr-and-amr-position-paper.pdf

[21] A useful summary of the CoRWM report: World Nuclear News 14th Feb 2024 https://www.world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/Waste-issues-need-consideration-in-SMR-deployment,

[22] See https://www.onr.org.uk/generic-design-assessment/

[23] See https://www.onr.org.uk/generic-design-assessment/assessment-of-reactors/rolls-royce-smr/

[24] BBC 9th November 2021 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-59212983

[25] Holtec 7th Dec 2023 https://holtecinternational.com/2023/12/07/holtec-britain-awarded-uk-government-grant-funding-for-generic-design-assessment-of-us-origin-smr-300-nuclear-reactor-in-the-united-kingdom/

[26] ONR 7th Dec 2023 https://news.onr.org.uk/2023/12/onr-begins-new-smr-reactor-assessment/

[27] Power Technology 7th March 2024 https://www.power-technology.com/news/holtec-and-hyundai-to-partner-with-british-firms-on-smr-bid/

[28] Reuters 7th March 2024 https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/holtec-seeks-uk-site-600-mln-pound-small-nuclear-reactor-factory-2024-03-07/

[29] World Nuclear News 24th January 2024 https://www.world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/Funding-to-support-UK-deployment-of-BWRX-300

[30] ONR 25th Jan 2024 https://onr.org.uk/news/all-news/2024/01/onr-begins-new-small-modular-reactor-assessment/

[31] World Nuclear News 13th Feb 2024 https://www.world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/Westinghouse-begins-UK-licensing-process-for-AP300

[32] Westinghouse 8th February 2024 https://info.westinghousenuclear.com/news/westinghouse-and-uks-community-nuclear-power-collaborate-to-deploy-fleet-of-ap300-small-modular-reactors

[33] Telegraph 8th February 2024 https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/02/08/britains-first-private-nuclear-power-station-teesside-2030s/

[34] NS Energy 9th February 2024 https://www.nsenergybusiness.com/news/westinghouse-and-uks-community-nuclear-power-collaborate-to-deploy-fleet-of-ap300-small-modular-reactors

[35] Carbon Commentary 3rd Dec 2024 https://mailchi.mp/1b61a44076ea/carbon-commentary-newsletter-december-3rd-2023

[36] UK Government Press Release 11th January 2024 https://www.gov.uk/government/news/biggest-expansion-of-nuclear-power-for-70-years-to-create-jobs-reduce-bills-and-strengthen-britains-energy-security

[37] ITV News 1st Aug 2023 https://www.itv.com/news/tyne-tees/2023-08-01/hartlepool-nuclear-power-station-at-40-what-does-the-future-hold

[38] Hartlepool Mail 1st Aug 2023 https://www.hartlepoolmail.co.uk/business/nuclear-industry-association-praises-legacy-of-hartlepool-power-station-and-looks-to-future-potential-4239946

[39] See https://x-energy.com/reactors/xe-100

[40] For an account of the safety issues HTGRs raise, see Matthias Englert, Friederike Frieß & M. V. Ramana

(2017) Accident Scenarios Involving Pebble Bed High Temperature Reactors, Science & Global Security,

25:1, 42-55, DOI: 10.1080/08929882.2017.1275320 https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08929882.2017.1275320

[41] Professional Engineering 6th Jan 2023 https://www.imeche.org/news/news-article/smr-developers-submit-6-designs-for-uk-approval

[42] Business Green 4th April 2024 https://www.businessgreen.com/news/4192414/energy-cavendish-nuclear-win-gbp-3m-grant-develop-advanced-modular-reactor-vision

[43] World Nuclear News 18th January 2024 https://www.world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/Newcleo-consults-NTS-on-transport-of-MOX

[44] Telegraph 20th January 2024 https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/01/20/newcleo-nuclear-start-up-drops-british-factory-plans-france/

[45] World Nuclear News 1st February 2024 https://www.world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/Podcast-Newcleo-s-Andrew-Murdoch-on-its-lead-coole

[46] Newcleo 5th April 2024 https://www.newcleo.com/press-releases/first-ever-advanced-reactor-submitted-for-justification-in-uk/

[47] World Nuclear News 18th January 2024 https://www.world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/Newcleo-consults-NTS-on-transport-of-MOX

[48] Observer 4th Dec 2005 https://www.theguardian.com/business/2005/dec/04/nuclearindustry.environment3