UK REVIVAL | NEW BUILD
Left:
Under the strategy all existing nuclear sites, like Sizewell, will be open for new build
Development consent The UK planning system is built around ‘national planning statements’ (NPSs) for various types of infrastructure that set out the national needs case and are endorsed by Parliament. The current nuclear NPS was designated in 2011 and
focused on GW-scale nuclear developments, eventually listing eight existing nuclear sites as potentially hosting new-build. “At that time, directing developers’ focus towards a fixed list of sites was considered the best way of delivering the urgent need for new nuclear power,” said the government. But only Hinkley Point C and Sizewell C have been consented. A new consultation in 2017 focused on GW technology at these eight existing sites, with a new deployment time limit of 2035 and plans for a new site nominations process in the mid 2020s. But the 2020 Energy White Paper set new ‘net zero’ targets. A single reactor at each of the eight sites would result in up to 14GW of nuclear capacity, and now there is “a credible prospect that advanced nuclear technologies will be deployed within the next decade” and any process should include SMRs and AMRs. So the government believes additional sites are likely to be needed and “a greater diversity of sites”. (It has committed to producing a separate NPS for fusion due to the fundamental differences in technology.) A new planning policy will:
● Apply to GW reactors and to SMRs (below 500MW) and AMRs that generate both heat and power.
● Empower developers to select sites for nuclear development, to open up more siting opportunities whilst constraining development in unsuitable areas. The government says that “In line with the other energy NPSs, this will put the developer at the forefront of site selection”.
● Remove deployment time limits to better support long- term planning and facilitate development of a longer- term pipeline of nuclear developments.
All existing sites (whether with operating or closed facilities) will be open for new build and the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) “will periodically publish a prospectus stating which of its land holdings will soon become available for reuse. Where there is commercial interest in available land, the NDA and the government will run fair and transparent processes to lease or option land, with the assumption being that sites go first to new nuclear projects, where that is feasible and represents value for money”.
However, the government says sites best suited for
advanced nuclear technologies may differ from those that are suitable for GW plants. They may have other outputs alongside electricity, such as high-temperature heat or synthetic fuels, including hydrogen, and these alternative end-uses could drive consideration of new sites such as those close to industrial heat users. The government intends to define heat-only and synthetic fuel-only reactors, as stations sized at 50 MW or below, as ‘nationally significant infrastructure’ whose development consent is awarded by national rather than local government, as applies to GW-scale reactors. This would require legislation to amend the Planning Act 2008. Assessment criteria will continue to include
consideration against the current ‘semi-urban’ demographic criterion (see box), which decrees that there should be no single 30° sector around the site in which the population density exceeds 5000 persons per square kilometre. But the government says there may be benefits for
certain advanced nuclear technologies to be deployed closer to denser populations, such as to provide high- temperature heat. It also says ANRs will have smaller amounts of nuclear material and there may be novel ways of protecting that material from accidental release. At present, such technologies are at the demonstrator stage so the consultation says it is “considered prudent to retain the semi-urban demographic criterion without amendment at present”. But it adds that “Once there is operational experience and further underpinning evidence around these advanced nuclear technologies, there may be a case for modifying the criterion”.
New business models A second major consultation covers new business models for future advanced reactors, where the government said it “recognises the strategic importance of embracing modular manufacturing” and hopes that, “The economic ripple effects could be substantial”. As a result, the government is considering “going beyond the support of Great British Nuclear and enabling different routes to market”. Although advanced nuclear technologies (ANTs) will
generate baseload power, the consultation envisages a range of decarbonisation opportunities, from grid electricity through to industrial heat, as well as in new industries such as the production of hydrogen and synthetic fuels. For example many ANT designs propose coupling with thermal energy storage, releasing the heat to steam turbines to generate electricity. Alternatively ANTs may be a direct source of heat for application in industrial processes
www.neimagazine.com | March 2024 | 35
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