UK government plays power broker with small modular reactor suitors

Four bidders chosen to submit tenders for SMR program

The UK government's nuclear energy agency has embarked on detailed negotiations with four shortlisted bidders to supply small modular reactors (SMRs) to bolster the country's power generation.

Great British Nuclear (GBN), owned by the government, says it will invite the four to submit tenders for evaluation, and decide on which technologies to select in the spring.

The finalists include GE Hitachi, Holtec, Rolls-Royce SMR, and Westinghouse. These have already passed through two rounds of assessment by GBN, formerly known as British Nuclear Fuels Ltd, which whittled down the original six applicants that were considered last year.

This tender is part of a government plan to revive nuclear power. It also has aspirations for the UK to take a leading role in developing technologies to deliver cleaner, cheaper energy and greater energy security. The ambition is for up to a quarter of all the country's electricity to come from nuclear power by 2050.

According to the World Nuclear Association, Britain currently generates about 15 percent of its electricity from nuclear, but most existing capacity is set to be retired by the end of the decade.

As the name suggests, SMRs are smaller and can be assembled in factories. The UK government believes the technology could transform how power stations are built by making construction faster and less expensive. It is understood that the aim is to deliver operational SMRs by the mid-2030s.

GBN says each of the four designs has already been subjected to a robust analysis to reach this stage of the process. This involved examining safety, deliverability, and the ability of each company to support development of "a fleet" of SMRs.

In a statement, GBN chair Simon Bowen claimed it as a significant moment for Britain's SMR program. "Our technical experts have assessed each design in detail and are very confident these SMRs could play a key role in the UK's future energy mix. The negotiation phase will enable us to select the absolute best technologies on the best terms for the UK."

We asked the four finalists to comment, but three had failed to respond by time of publication.

A spokesperson for Westinghouse, told us:

"We look forward to demonstrating the Westinghouse AP300 SMR's proven credentials, as the only SMR based on an advanced, large Generation III+ reactor in operation globally and licensed in the United Kingdom. Thanks to a design leveraging our AP1000® technology, components, supply chain, and licensing approach, we are confident the first operating AP300 unit will be available in the early 2030s."

Reg readers will be aware that SMRs are not just being developed for connection to the power grid, but are also being considered for colocation with datacenters to provide direct power for their growing energy requirements, so far mostly in the US.

Earlier this year, Oracle announced it had secured building permits for a trio of SMRs to power one of its facilities. Other tech giants such as Google and Amazon announced agreements with companies developing SMRs that are intended to boost regional grid capacity where their bit barns are located.

A spokesperson for GBN told us that its first priority is to get SMRs working and feeding the UK grid, but that it has other use cases such as datacenters in its sights.

"Clearly, nuclear is a very advantageous energy source for this purpose. It's the only low-carbon option that can provide power 24/7/365," the spokesperson said.

GBN is targeting 300-500 MW for the SMRs in this project, but told us that even smaller designs known as advanced modular reactors (AMRs) – also known as micro-modular reactors (MMRs) – may be better suited for datacenter deployment.

And unlike traditional reactors, modern designs feature "passive safety," meaning they simply shut down if something goes wrong – or so we're told.

It isn't clear if any of the four bidders have plans to colocate SMRs with UK datacenters, but following the government's decision in September to classify the latter as critical national infrastructure (CNI), more are likely to pop up here, placing greater strain on the power infrastructure.

As The Register reported at the time, this move "streamlines" planning permission for such facilities. However, the single biggest obstacle to building datacenters is access to power, one of the UK's major commercial property developers recently claimed. ®