Unseemly scramble as makers of small nuclear reactors try to con UK government

NuScale joins Rolls-Royce and Bill Gates in race to build UK nuclear
reactors. A US nuclear developer is poised to join the race to build new
reactors in the UK and has urged the government to go faster in picking a
preferred technology.

NuScale, based in Oregon, said it was “very
active” in the UK market and that it would “engage with the activity
around the government’s SMR competition”.

The UK is running a contest to
find suppliers of small modular reactors (SMRs), which hold the promise of
zero-emission, lower-cost nuclear power as they can be made in a factory
and assembled on site. This reduces the vast overheads of large nuclear
projects.

NuScale is developing an SMR called VOYGR, which is based on a
traditional nuclear design called a pressurised water-cooled reactor. It is
the first SMR to have been certified by the US Nuclear Regulatory
Commission.

The UK government has set up a new body, Great British Nuclear
(GBN), to select new projects. It is aiming to settle on winning SMR
designs by the autumn.

Tom Mundy, president of VOYGR services and delivery,
said NuScale would not require development money from GBN as its project
was ready to deploy. “We don’t need the support that has been suggested
… We’re ready to deliver the project much earlier than GBN has
suggested,” he said. “GBN suggests people could start building SMRs by
2030. That means taking a final investment decision then. That’s too late
for us. We have got customers taking final investment decisions much
earlier,” Mundy added. “Let’s get going.”

NuScale’s rivals in the
race include GE Hitachi, also of the US, and Rolls-Royce, which wants to
win an order in its home market. TerraPower, a start-up founded and chaired
by Bill Gates, has also indicated that it wants to build nuclear projects
in the UK. It has a type of SMR called an advanced modular reactor (AMR) in
development.

Times 4th June 2023

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/nuscale-joins-rolls-royce-and-bill-gates-in-race-to-build-uk-nuclear-reactors-z0bhln3qb

June 5, 2023 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | marketing, UK

1 Comment »

Whatever the size or type of reactor, small module reactor(SMR), boiling or pressurized water nuclear reactors, they are all too dangerous, too expensive, and TOTALLY UNNECESSARY FOR OUR ENERGY NEEDS. Go to the SolutionsProject.org for detailed plans to transition to a renewable energy economy with just wind, hydroelectric, photovoltaic, and geothermal energy for all 50 States, and 146 Countries from around the world. We have the technology and the natural resources in this county to do that now. All we lack is the political will to do so because of the profict addicted, dieing, fossil fuel and nuclear power industries, have bought the votes of the elected leaders from both parties in the Congress and all of the state legislatures. Has everybody forgotten about Fukishima, Cherynoble, and Three Mile Island? We don’t have a permanent solution for the storage of nuclear wast for 450,000 years, that is ten half-lives of plutonium, part of the waste products from nuclear power, nuclear weapons, nuclear powered aircraft carriers and submarines. Contrary to the propaganda of the nuclear and electric utilities, we will not “starve and freeze in the dark,” nor “wreck our economy in the process/.”

Comment by paulrodenlearning | June 5, 2023 | Reply

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