Recommendation 18

The Government is at a cross-roads in its policy on small modular reactors (SMRs). So far it has funded a consortium led by Rolls-Royce with over £210 million of research and development funds to develop a concept SMR design, and now, to further develop the design to the extent that it can pass the generic design assessment process. That public funding was matched with £280 million from the private sector. It has subsequently announced that Great British Nuclear will launch and administer a competition in which other vendors’ technology would be assessed. What is then required is a set of pivotal decision on the actual deployment of, rather than research into, SMRs.