nuclear-news

Ed Miliband presses the nuclear button for Berkeley

 Rolls-Royce SMR has been given the full go-ahead to build up to SIX mini
nuclear reactors on the edge of Gloucestershire. The small modular designs,
which embrace a miniaturisation approach to nuclear technology that is yet
to be fully developed, are planned to be at Oldbury-on-Severn, near
Thornbury, while key support on training and safety services, as broadly
predicted, will be installed in Berkeley, at the town’s former Severnside
Magnox site.

Ian Mean, former director for Business West in Gloucestershire
and now on the board of the Gloucestershire County Council Economic Growth
Board, said Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ and Ed Miliband’s final confirmation
was “tremendous news for the Gloucestershire economy”. He said: “I believe
that these mini reactors – as many as six of them here in Gloucestershire
and South Gloucestershire – have the potential to provide thousands of
skilled jobs and the opportunity of millions of pounds flowing into our
regional economy. “Berkeley and Oldbury – the two former decommissioned
nuclear sites at Oldbury and Berkeley Green now hold the key to becoming a
major nuclear hub.”

But any resurrection of the technology in SMR format
has been condemned by Gloucestershire energy entrepreneur Dale Vince, who
owns Stroud-based Ecotricity. Speaking on the Zerocarbonista podcast before
today’s confirmation, Mr Vince said: “When you come to small nukes, the
government and the nuclear industry have consistently said that we will get
lower bills, but they don’t put a number on it. They are ecomonists without
numbers! “Big nuclear is the most expensive electricity we have ever made,
it’s off the charts compared to renewable energy and one of the fundamental
laws of physics is that the economies of scale come by making something
bigger, not by making something smaller – it always costs money to
miniaturise.

So here they are, saying we can miniaturise nuclear reactors
that famously went decades late and billions over budget… and they’ll be
cheap. I don’t believe that for a second and what we are of course doing is
proliferating the risk.” He added: “It’s always worth imagining what it
would be like if the Romans had nuclear power. If they did, Bath would be a
toxic no-go zone. It’s only 2,000 years ago and sounds like a long time,
but not in the context of toxic nuclear waste.”

 Punchline Gloucester 10th June 2025,
https://www.punchline-gloucester.com/articles/aanews/miliband-presses-the-nuclear-button-for-berke

June 15, 2025 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, UK