Britain’s Rolls-Royce said its £ 500 million programme for small modular nuclear reactors will run out of money by the end of 2024, jeopardising the development of the technology that the government has said could boost energy security and meet climate targets.
Britain wants to replace obsolete nuclear power plants because all but one of the plants, which generate about 13% of the country’s electricity, must close by 2030.
Our country, like other European countries, needs to increase its energy independence after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine led to record prices for electricity.
New large-scale nuclear projects with huge start-up costs are struggling to attract investment, which has shifted the focus to smaller, cheaper reactors that the government says have export potential.
Rolls-Royce’s small modular reactor (SMR) development activities received a £ 210 million commitment from the government in 2021, but talks on funding the projects are yet to begin.
“We are not asking the government to place an order today (for the nuclear units), but we need to start negotiating an implementation plan in the middle of this year,” Alastair Evans, director of government and Corporate Affairs at Rolls-Royce SMR, told Reuters.
“We are facing a cliff edge, in December 2024 the money will run out,” he said.
Rolls-Royce’S new CEO, Tufan Erginbilgic, said last week that there was a sense of urgency in working with the government.
“We have built a capable team (and) without any project, it will be a big challenge to maintain that team,” he told reporters after the group published the annual results.
With rivals working on similar technology, it was vital to act quickly, he said.
“It is important that we therefore urgently engage with the UK government, and for a project that we can deploy as soon as possible,” he said.
Rolls Royce and the shareholders in the SMR company, consulting firm BNF Resources Ltd, the US energy company Constellation and the Qatar Investment Authority have invested a total of around 280 million pounds.
This money and government money have been used to build the company, which employs around 600 people in Derby, Warrington and Manchester.
The money has made it possible to start the regulatory process to approve the reactor design and designate sites for factories.
Rolls-Royce hopes to build the reactors in British factories and has identified possible sites in Sunderland and South Tyneside and Teeside in the north of England and Deeside in Wales.
