Pressed on the timing of the long-awaited policy paper last week during a debate on small modular reactors (SMRs) in the House of Commons, junior business minister Richard Harrington, said: “That will happen in the next few months—in early summer.”
The government has awarded grants of up to £300,000 to eight companies to undertake feasibility studies as part of a £44 million research and development programme for advanced modular reactors.
The nuclear industry has committed to a 30 per cent cut in the cost of building new plants by 2030 under the sector deal which the government unveiled today (28 June).
Companies are threatening to walk away from the UK’s long delayed mini-nuclear plant programme despite yesterday’s announcement of new government funding.