NIA | CONFERENCE REPORT


With or without Chinese or other overseas state investment, RAB is not a golden ticket to affordable finance, a panel on the subject explained


Zhu, who also noted that there are “no showstoppers” in the Generic Design Assessment (GDA) of the HPR1000 reactor design they plan to build at Bradwell B. “I instruct my team – just keep calm and carry on,” he said. With or without Chinese or other overseas state


investment, RAB is not a golden ticket to affordable finance, a panel on the subject explained. Without malice Dominic Nash, Head of European Utilities Research at Barclays Investment Bank said that, “Nuclear is not an attractive proposition.” This is simply because there are “high sums, long timescales before return, and uncertainty about how you will get remunerated,” he said. “Until you get those down, you won’t have the investor interest you want.” Neil Griffiths-Lambeth, Associate Managing Director at Moody’s Investors Service, put this in a word by saying nuclear’s construction risk is “pronounced” and that makes it “inherently not investment grade.” Even new plants that are built and operating carry single-asset risk, which can make investors think twice, he said. Griffiths-Lambert said that “Complexity is the enemy of


raising money. You want a simple straightforward story.” Nash added that any RAB arrangement is “already insanely complex, and for nuclear it will probably be more complex, not less.” And while sustainable development taxonomies are useful, in Nash’s experience most investors already have criteria and lists of their own and “Nuclear is not normally on them.”


Summarising the difficulty ahead for nuclear finance, as


well as for other clean energy sources, the panel noted that future high penetrations of intermittent renewables will drive down market prices and new market designs will be required. More work for the government. At present the only other active project for large reactors


is Wylfa Partners, composed of Westinghouse and Bechtel, which would like to build two AP1000s at Wylfa Newydd in Wales. The team has “not been very vocal” said Michael Waite of Westinghouse, instead conducting its discussions with government behind closed doors. The companies are now “taking steps to de-risk the project and attract investment” and seeking support from the government’s £120 million Nuclear Enabling Fund. They think RAB could also be extended to fund the development phase as well as construction. In an earlier presentation to the Nuclear Manufacturing


Summit hosted by the Nuclear Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre in Sheffield in November, Ivan Baldwin, director at Bechtel Management Company, noted that the AP1000 has already completed the GDA, and said that a UK project could benefit from lessons learned at Vogtle, under construction in the USA, as well as four operating plants in China. Baldwin described Wylfa as a “UK industry enabling project,” noting it would offer opportunities in modular manufacturing to UK businesses. The size of the site at Wylfa also opens doors for co-location of large-scale and


Torness: 2030


Hunterston B: Early 2022


small modular reactors, and possibilities for cogeneration and hydrogen, he said. In terms of small and advanced reactors, the UK


continues to push ahead. Tom Samson, the chief executive leading the development and commercialisation of the Rolls-Royce SMR spoke bullishly about the 220 vacancies the new standalone company has, and that it will grow to 800 as it progresses GDA of its design. The application to begin GDA has already been submitted, he said, and the company hopes to be “in with regulators in January next year.” Once that is in progress his task is to “create the environment for delivery.” Fusion too is leaping forward with the STEP programme


to build the world’s first fusion power plant. Sites are being sought for the demonstrator, which will be based on a breakthrough in heat removal from a spherical tokamak that enables a much smaller design. Celebrating all of this, was Greg Hands, the minister


for Business, Energy and Clean Growth. He announced that a technology had been selected for a further new reactor project — the Advanced Modular Reactor Research, Development & Demonstration Programme. Building on the UK’s gas-cooled reactor experience, this will be an high temperature gas reactor, he said, confirming a previously announced preference. Hands’ tone was jubilant at the progress made by the


government — so far at least — in assembling the policy framework for net zero. The UK is “on a mission for fission” he said and echoed the COP26 campaign slogan of the Young Generation Network at least three times: “Net Zero Needs Nuclear.” ■


Below: Closure dates for the current UK nuclear fl eet Source: NIA


Hartlepool: March 2024


Heysham 1: March 2024 Heysham 2: 2030


Sizewell B: 2035+


Hinkley Point B: July 2022


Dungeness B: CLOSED June 2021


www.neimagazine.com | January 2022 | 29


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