There is going to be no new golden nuclear age anytime soon in the UK. All but one of our present nuclear power stations close this decade as we impatiently await Hinckley C coming on stream to replace one third of the lost capacity 2020-30.
The last government proposed building a second large station in Suffolk at Sizewell, and announced a competition to choose a builder for a series of smaller reactors. Yesterday this government announced Rolls Royce will be the team leader and designer building these reactors. It was not a firm contract. There is no chosen location for the first one. There is £2.5 bn of public money over five years with no specified outputs listed in the announcements.
The Rolls Royce website says they want to gain safety and design approval for a 470 MW plant occupying a 5 acre site using pressure water technology. It will take an estimated 4 years from starting site work to the reactor generating power. Allowing further long periods to negotiate terms, get approvals and set up fabrication it may be ten years before the first is running.
The government also announced £14.2 bn public spend on going ahead with Sizewell C. Again there is no contract, as they have not negotiated the private capital with co investors. They will not put a price on it, but others say £40 bn. As the most recent guess for an SMR is £3 bn, Sizewell is 13 times the price for under seven times the power. It does not look like great value. Past attempts to build one of these in France and the UK have gone way over budget and been much delayed. They say they now know how to build them and will just copy one that is almost built. Sizewell will not be up and running before 2035.
The government tells us lots of new nuclear, more than we had before the closures, is essential. So how do we manage for the next ten years when nuclear almost disappears? We will need plenty of transitional gas stations for when the wind and the sun let us down.