grass roots

WHAT is very large, is located in the countryside, costs a fortune, and is likely to arrive decades late? The answer, of course, is a nuclear power station. A good example is the Hinkley Point C plant in Somerset, which has been receding further and further into the future since work began on the plans in 2008. The completion date currently seems to be in the mid to late 2020s. But don’t put money on it!

Despite the many drawbacks of nuclear reactors, the government is dead set on going for more of them. However, the last decade is a saga of huge delays and embarrassing cost overruns. Back in 2013, when Hinkley Point C passed a key stage in its development, the then prime minister, David Cameron, claimed, “This is a very big day for our country!”

At that time, the opening of the completed plant was planned for – guess when – 2023! But a functioning Hinkley Point C is still quite a few years away. And the predicted cost has risen from about £14 billion to around £26 or £28 billion, largely backed by gigantic government loan guarantees, meaning the taxpayer could end up footing much of the bill. So, when nuclear industry executives offered to construct new plants in smaller bite-size chunks, the government could hardly restrain its enthusiasm.

These nuclear chunks are called small modular reactors. The idea is, perhaps, that if one or two of them go way over budget, the financial impact is containable. A US-based advocate for small modular reactors, Ken Silverstein, argues that these reactors could typically produce from 50 to 300 megawatts of power. At a given plant you could have reactors which in total add up to 1,000 megawatts – about the capacity of a current conventional sized nuclear reactor. “And,” says Silverstein “…if one module goes down, it can be repaired while the rest still operate.”

The government has been banging the drum for these reactors for a couple of years now. But in March, Alan Brown, energy spokesperson for the Scottish National Party launched into a tirade against them and their proponents. He said that in the UK there was not even a regulator-approved design for a small modular reactor (SMR) yet, but that somehow Rolls Royce, a constructor, was saying it could have them operational by 2029. To him it brought back exaggerated claims for nuclear power going back many years.

“It is the same rhetoric,” he went on, “and the same mistakes, over and over again….In reality each (reactor) will cost £2 billion….If SMRs are so attractive, why is the taxpayer being asked to pay half the cost of a prototype….It makes no sense, if it was so commercially viable.”

Even more damaging, an outfit in the USA called Clean Tech News has found out that there are only two existing contractors in America which have produced

Kwasi Kwarteng, Former Energy Secretary

numbers and costs for SMRs. And it has learned that the one with the more detailed numbers is proposing to supply electricity at a price which is actually higher than the power expected from the notoriously late and overbudget Hinkley Point C in Somerset.

If that is anywhere near correct, it pulls the rug from under small modular reactors. It means they are likely to deliver power no cheaper than what we expect we will get from the large sized reactors which have caused so many headaches. Nevertheless, the UK government is determined to steam ahead.

In the last couple of years one minister who has been notably keen to promote small modular reactors is Kwasi Kwarteng. Remember him? Blink, and you might have missed him! Last year he was Chancellor of the Exchequer, no less, during the catastrophic premiership of Liz Truss.

Kwarteng has been unkindly dubbed Kami Kwasi by one newspaper columnist. Kwasi has not launched an aerial suicide attack on anyone, but one of his more dramatic exploits did end in his own political demise. In 2021 Kwarteng became energy secretary - a big cabinet job! In that role he put his name to a statement claiming that these new nuclear plants would provide reliable, affordable, low carbon energy, which was a “once in a lifetime opportunity” for the UK to bring clean electricity to people’s homes.

And within 18 months of that claim, Kwarteng joined Liz Truss, during her dizzying spell in Downing Street. She made Kwarteng Chancellor of the Exchequer. But he lasted only 5 minutes! Sorry, I am being unfair! He lasted a full 38 days in the job before being booted out by his friend Liz.

La Truss was soon forced to fall on her own sword in the face of fury on the Tory benches and chaos in the financial markets, caused by the Truss-Kwarteng “minibudget”. No doubt those with any doubts about small modular reactors will feel deeply reassured that this technology has the solid backing of such an illustrious leading politician as Kwasi Kwarteng.

Julian O’Halloran