COUNTRY PAVILLIONS | WNE2023 UK: Aiming for nuclear leadership
Ambitious plans to produce a quarter of the UK’s electricity needs from nuclear have seen the government embrace new nuclear capacity with up to 24 GWe on line by 2050.
The UK’s nine operating reactors have a combined capacity of close to 6 GWe and supply about a sixth of the country’s total annual electricity demand. All of the UK’s reactors are owned and operated by EDF Energy, a UK subsidiary of France’s EDF. With its long history of civil nuclear power, the UK has been a leading proponent of nuclear power, but despite this almost all of its existing plants are scheduled for closure by the end of the decade.
Nonetheless, as part of its net zero strategy the government has announced plans for up to 24 GWe of new nuclear capacity to be operational by 2050 and has earmarked eight sites for development. All of these sites are existing nuclear power plant locations. Four large reactor designs have already been approved for development in the UK – Framatome’s EPR, the Westinghouse AP1000, GE-Hitachi’s ABWR and the Chinese Hualong HPR 1000 – and one design, the EPR is already under construction at Hinkley Point in Somerset where two units are being built. Sizewell in Suffolk is also set to see two new EPRs constructed after environmental permits were granted earlier this year. Both Hinkley Point C and Sizewell C are under development by EDF Energy. Alongside an on-going commitment to large reactors, the UK is also
actively pursuing development of SMRs as part of its nuclear ambitions. It has just announced the shortlist of six smaller reactor designs that are passing to the next stage of a competition to build new nuclear capacity. More details on these designs can be found on page 32. Spearheading the UK’s nuclear plans is Great British Nuclear (GBN), an entity recently created for the purpose and which is leading the SMR competition. Using nuclear power to produce hydrogen for industrial use is an
Above: Hinkley Point C under construction
attractive area of development and last month the UK’s Heysham nuclear power plant announced a pilot project that will see it produce hydrogen for use in asphalt production. As well as pushing for new nuclear capacity and capabilities, the UK is also ramping up efforts on nuclear fuel with government grants supporting eight projects to develop new fuel production and manufacturing capabilities.
USA: A land of opportunity
With its first reactor in 30 years starting operations, the USA is back with a new nuclear development landscape for reactors large and small.
The USA has fully embraced nuclear power and currently remains the nation with the single largest chunk of world market share. With 93 operational reactors and a combined nuclear capacity of almost 96 GWe, the technology generates around 18% of the total national electricity demand. Despite its strong nuclear sector, until recently the US had not
started construction of a new reactor in the nearly three decades since Watts Bar in Tennessee began operations. However, with the start of commercial operations at Vogtle Unit 3 in Georgia earlier this year, that drought was finally brought to an end. Its sister, Unit 4, is scheduled to begin operations at the beginning of 2024. Both reactors are of the AP1000 design from Westinghouse. The completion of the project is a breakthrough that potentially signals a new era of US nuclear development, which has also been invigorated with strong policy support, in particular the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) that was signed into law in August last year. The IRA provides investment and tax incentives for both existing and new nuclear development and covers conventional large light water reactors as well as emerging SMRs and advanced reactors. Indeed, the US is pumping significant government resources into advanced reactor development through various department of Energy (DoE) programmes, notably the
Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program (ARDP). These efforts are yielding dividends as the US is home to some of the more advanced designs for SMRs, for example NuScale, which is the first SMR design to have achieved Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) certification. NuScale is expected to build its first unit at Idaho National Laboratory (INL). And, in a related SMR development breakthrough, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) has made an agreement with GE Hitachi to deploy its BWX-300 SMR at Clinch River. Alongside reactor deployments the DoE is also developing
advanced and novel fuels like TRISO and HALEU that can support new reactor designs.
Above: Unit 3 of the Vogtle Nuclear Plant under construction
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