Rolls-Royce Chief discusses target for Sustainable Aviation Fuel
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The iconic British engineering giant’s small modular reactors (SMRs) are around the size of two football pitches but can provide enough power for around half a million homes (around the size of Leeds). This makes them much smaller and likely easier to build than traditional nuclear power stations, Rolls-Royce claims, which could be revolutionary for the future of nuclear energy.
This could also help to offer a clean energy alternative as the UK suffers from the spiralling costs of wholesale gas, which is having a huge knock-effect on British customers.
By boosting its homegrown energy supplies, it will massively boost Britain’s energy security and make a future crisis less likely, experts and ministers have argued.
It comes as Britons face staggeringly high bills in the coming months, with a horror price cap (maximum annual tariff) prediction by industry regulator Ofgem, which warned households may have to fork out up to £4,200 by January.
While Rolls-Royce’s SMRs will not even come close to getting deployed before that date, the future role the innovations could play in the energy mix looks as though it could be a huge win for the UK.
This also comes after Norway, the UK’s main gas supplier, threatened to ration its energy exports, including to Britain, in order to priories its own supplies.
Conservative MP Tobias Elwood, speaking about the SMRs, tweeted: “This is how the UK can make its own energy.
“But plans to make this happen are stuck in HM Treasury.
“I have secured a Parliamentary debate on September 7 calling for the Government to expedite this game-changing, world-leading UK initiative.”
Back in March, a design for the reactors was approved for the generic design assessment process with the Office for Nuclear Regulation, the Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales.
Rolls-Royce SMR chief executive Tom Samson said that entering this process was a major milestone towards the goal of deploying a fleet of the reactors.
He said: “The UK regulatory process is internationally recognised and respected.
“We welcome the scrutiny and challenge that goes into the assessment of our nuclear power plant design.”
But Mr Elwood has been pressing for the Treasury to speed up this process.
He tweeted back in June: “How can we help tackle the cost of living crisis and become energy secure?
“Generate more of our own power here in the UK through the rollout of small modular nuclear reactors.
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“It’s a new concept and Rolls-Royce has a design that we should support.”
Mr Elwood has also said that the Rolls-Royce design awaiting approval is “state-of-the-art” and has claimed that just 60 reactors could power the entire country.
Despite plans being “stuck in the Treasury”, the Government has helped Rolls-Royce with a £210million investment to support the development of the reactors.
Once the design is approved and the factory manufacturing the SMRs gets up and running, Rolls-Royce expects to produce a reactor every six months.
This, it says, could create 40,000 jobs and over attract over £50billion worth of investment.
There is also an expected £250billon export market potential, and Rolls-Royce’s chief technology officer Paul Stein has previously told Express.co.uk that the company hopes to take a significant share of that market.
In total, Rolls-Royce has secured around £500million of funding for SMRs, and 80 percent of the components are reportedly set to be manufactured in the UK.
It plans to start producing plants in the early 2030s, with each one estimated to have an energy output of roughly a quarter of the larger traditional nuclear reactors like the upcoming Hinkley Point C.
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