Plans are afoot for the Government to accelerate the development of mini-sized nuclear reactors in order to help bring down the nation’s energy bills. According to the Daily Mail, Energy Secretary Grant Shapps is expected tomorrow to launch an international contest to build the world’s first small modular reactors in the UK. This, he has explained, will form part of a wider program of energy reform dubbed “Powering Up Britain”.
In a comment piece published in the Sun on Sunday, Mr Shapps wrote that Russian President Vladimir Putin has “hit the pockets of every family and business in Britain by weaponising energy”.
He added: “The fallout from the tragic conflict in Ukraine has undoubtedly caused us some short-term challenges.
“But ultimately, Putin’s war also marks a crucial turning point for Britain’s energy resilience. Never again will we be held hostage by a tyrant. Never again will we allow our energy security to be threatened.
“Powering Up Britain will mean we wean ourselves off fossil fuel imports, and replace them with cheaper, cleaner, domestic power from renewables and nuclear.
“And we will drive this energy transition with British innovation, British investment and British jobs. We won’t allow Putin to threaten this cornerstone of our prosperity.”
Mr Shapps also noted that the recent budget has seen the Energy Price Guarantee extended by an extra three months — a move estimate to save the average UK household some £1.500.
And from July, he explained, the Government will be ending the premium paid by households with prepayment metres, rather than those paying via direct debit.
The Energy Secretary added: “Even though these interventions were critically important to help millions of people through the winter, they were only stop-gap measures.”
Powering Up Britain, he said, will “drive down your bills for good, deliver among the cheapest wholesale energy prices in Europe by 2035, and transform Britain’s energy security”.
Mr Shapps continued: “The most successful economies in the world are the ones that have cheap energy prices. And we have the ambition, skills and natural resources we need to get there.
“We already have the world’s largest operational offshore windfarm project. And the second and third largest. And soon we will have the fourth largest too.
“All to harness a resource that Britain will never run short on — windy coastal weather. But we’re going to go further.
“We are also developing the next frontier in this exciting industry —floating offshore windfarms. Proving that Britannia still rules the waves.”
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Mr Shapps added: “We’ve neglected nuclear for too long in this country, so we’ll be developing large-scale conventional nuclear power stations, but also cutting-edge Small Modular Reactors, which allow for much greater flexibility.
He concluded: “Cheap, clean, abundant energy — produced at home — will drive our future success.”
The news comes less than two weeks after it was announced that the UK Space Agency had awarded £2.9million in funding to Rolls-Royce for the development of a modular nuclear reactor for use in future lunar missions.
However, last week Rolls-Royce announced that — as a result of delays by the UK Government — they were also considering building Earth-based small modular reactors in Finland and Sweden.
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