Inspenet, June 27, 2023.
The issue of nuclear energy has once again been the subject of discussion at the United Nations Conference on Climate Change, known as COP26 and held in Glasgow, United Kingdom. One of the defenders of this form of energy is the British prime minister, Boris Johnson, who seeks to increase nuclear capacity to boost his short-term plans.
In this sense, the British government has awarded a significant subsidy to Rolls-Royce, a company that is carrying out a program of research and development of small modular reactors, known as SMR (Small Modular Reactors) with the aim of achieving a source of clean and cheap energy.
Mini nuclear reactors: an innovative project
In the “Rolls-Royce SMR” development project, the company collaborates mainly with two partners: BNF Resources UK Limited and Exelon Generation Limited , the latter being an American company specializing in nuclear energy.
These three companies have already received a capital investment of 195 million pounds (226 million euros) from private investors. In addition, the British government will allocate 210 million pounds (243 million euros) to the project.
This public subsidy comes from research and development funds under Boris Johnson’s “Ten Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution”, which aims to reduce the country’s dependence on gas and other fossil fuels.
So far, the SMR project has obtained financing of approximately 470 million euros. However, both Rolls-Royce and its partners will continue to seek new sources of investment for this innovative project and hope to start seeing results in the next decade.
According to Tom Samson, CEO of Rolls-Royce, the technology implemented in the SMRs represents a solution that can provide cost-competitive and scalable clean energy for various applications ranging from electricity generation for the grid and industry to the production of hydrogen and synthetic fuels.
The three partners expect that their SMR project will generate around 40,000 jobs by the year 2050. The project’s transformative approach to nuclear power supply is unique and is based on predictable manufactured components.
Furthermore, setting up a development plant for SMRs has a much lower initial cost compared to a conventional nuclear power plant. According to Rolls-Royce, a single power plant using SMR technology will occupy the space equivalent to two football fields and have the capacity to supply approximately one million homes.
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