| Focus on the UK
awarded over £350 million in contracts across the UK supply chain this year.
The new contract with Rolls-Royce “unlocks the delivery of our first three units [totalling 1.4 GWe] and brings certainty to the UK SMR programme,” said Chris Cholerton, chief executive of Rolls-Royce SMR. With plans for up to six further units in Czechia, this announcement makes Rolls-Royce SMR the only company with multiple commitments in Europe, the company says (although it should be noted that CEZ is a shareholder in Rolls-Royce SMR). “We are transforming the way nuclear projects are delivered, to give greater cost and schedule certainty with a standardised, factory-built approach. This project is important to the UK’s energy security and will power up our business and the UK supply chain, and we are excited by the opportunity and are focused on successful delivery.” The National Wealth Fund is committing up to £599 million to Rolls-Royce SMR to support the development of its small modular reactors. By supporting British nuclear technology, the Fund is said to be playing a critical role in increasing investor confidence.
Overhaul of nuclear regulation To help speed up nuclear power delivery, the British government is implementing recommendations made by the independent nuclear regulatory taskforce led by John Fingleton, which found an “overly complex” and “bureaucratic” system that favoured process over safe outcomes and has held back the industry. The government expects all the reforms to be completed by the end of 2027. The core of the plan is a move towards smarter regulation: proportionate; focused on real risk; rooted in evidence; and designed to effectively protect nature and biodiversity. The plan will support safe, cost effective, and rapid delivery across the entire civil and defence nuclear enterprise. It is expected to reduce the cost and timeframe of delivering new civil and defence nuclear projects, without compromising safety and environmental protections, getting rid of duplicative or overly complex guidance.
The Fingleton Review concluded that an overly complex nuclear regulatory system had contributed to the ‘relative decline’ of the UK’s ability to deliver faster and cheaper nuclear projects. It said a ‘radical reset’ was needed and made 47 recommendations to government aimed at speeding up delivery, building on time, reducing costs and strengthening safety – “to unleash a golden era of nuclear technology and innovation.” Recommendations included establishing a ‘one-stop shop’ for nuclear decisions and streamlining regulation to remove duplication and improve proportionality to avoid overly bureaucratic, costly processes while improving safety standards. The Review estimates that the reforms could save tens of billions in nuclear decommissioning costs alone, as well as cutting energy costs for consumers and driving more investment into the UK. It noted that Britain was the first country to split the atom, commission the first full-scale nuclear power station supplying energy to a grid, and by 1965 had more nuclear reactors in operation than the USA, USSR, and France put together. Nuclear power produced a quarter of the country’s electricity into the 1990s. But recent nuclear projects have been expensive and behind schedule, caused in part by overly complex and misunderstood regulation that prioritises process and paperwork over safe outcomes. The Fingleton Review argued that these complexities can be tackled by fixing planning delays, replacing surveys and assessments with more effective action on nature and environments, and reintroducing proportionality and current international standards and practice into radiological rules. “This is a once in a generation opportunity,” said John Fingleton. “The problems are systemic, rooted in unnecessary complexity, and a mindset that favours process over outcome. “Our solutions are radical, but necessary. By simplifying regulation, we can maintain or enhance safety standards while finally delivering nuclear capacity safely, quickly, and affordably.” The recommendations include the following five root and branch propositions:
● stronger political leadership, including the government providing a robust strategic direction for the civil and defence nuclear sectors;
● establishment of a commission for nuclear regulation to be a unified decision maker across all regulators, planners, and approval bodies;
● clarifying risk tolerability and proportionality, bringing Britain into line with the rest of the world;
● merging of the Defence Nuclear Safety Regulator into the Office for Nuclear Regulation;
● avoiding of regulation that prioritises bureaucracy over safe outcomes – such as reforming environmental and planning regimes to enhance nature and deliver projects quicker.
“This report presents an unprecedented opportunity to make nuclear regulation more coherent, transparent and efficient, in turn making projects faster and less expensive to deliver,” said Tom Greatrex, chief executive of the UK Nuclear Industry Association. “Too often, costly and bureaucratic processes have stood in the way of our energy security, the fight against the climate crisis, and protecting the natural environment, to which nuclear is essential. Our standards of regulation are world renowned, but our processes have sometimes developed in a piecemeal way. The UK’s nuclear sector has a strong safety record, and these recommendations will ensure that continues to be the case while addressing duplication, contradiction and excess complexity.” “This report is clear: Britain cannot deliver its energy, security or growth ambitions with a 20th-century regulatory machine,” said Ben Cooney, chief AI & innovation officer at the Tony Blair Institute. “As TBI have long argued, reforming our slow, risk-averse regulatory system is essential to reverse a decade of decline – the longer we delay, the higher the cost to taxpayers. Britain once led the world in nuclear; now we lag far behind. To get back on track, we must cut energy costs and unlock our industrial and AI capacity to power our future – and we must deliver quickly.”
Rolls-Royce SMR cross section. Image: Rolls-Royce SMR
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