SMR Deployment Enablers
This project will provide a greater understanding of the necessary actions required over the next five years if a first of a kind small modular reactor plant is to be in operation in the UK by 2030.
About the project
- The project will provide a greater understanding of the necessary actions required over the next five years if a first of a kind small modular reactor plant is to be in operation in the UK by 2030
- The ETI will invest up to £300,000 in the six-month SMR Deployment Enablers project
- The Government announced £250m for nuclear innovation and Small Modular Reactors in the 2015 Autumn Statement
The ETI will invest up to £300,000 in the six-month project which will identify what activities need to take place in the first five years of a development plan if small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs) are to be deployed in the UK.
A previous ETI project focusing on alternative nuclear technologies provided an overview of the broad issues and associated timescales required to support a UK SMR fleet deployment from 2030 onwards. It found that there are still many uncertainties around SMR development in the UK but that progress needs to made across a number of areas from 2016 onwards if the option to include them in the UK’s future energy mix is to be kept open.
The purpose of the ETI’s latest project is to identify what activities need to take place in the first five years of a development plan for UK SMRs and the necessary capability of the SMR utility/developer organisation during this phase. Selection processes are out of scope so the starting assumption for the project is that both the SMR utility/developer and reactor vendor have already been identified.
In the 2015 Autumn Statement the Government announced that £250m would be made available to help position the UK as an international leader in SMR technology.
