(Ynys Môn)
(Con):...Financing for small modular reactors is potentially more
straightforward, and I welcome the Government’s work on funding
for SMRs. I also welcome the fantastic news today
that Rolls-Royce has
funding for its SMRs, thanks to a lot of hard work in both
private and Government funding for this UK initiative. As modular
builds, advanced modular reactors require less in up-front costs
and time, but they are intended for local energy production and
are still in the development stage. A single SMR on Anglesey
could produce enough energy for north Wales, which is primarily a
rural area, and a large plant in the same location would power
the whole of Wales, with a little bit left over for England, if
we were feeling generous...
...By embracing nuclear we can secure not only our future energy
security, but our future employment security, as the levelling-up
agenda and the net zero agenda coincide. When Hitachi withdrew
its development consent order for Wylfa Newydd at the beginning
of the year, citing programme financing as the main factor, my
constituency was devastated. Companies such as Bechtel,
Westinghouse, Shearwater and Rolls-Royce are
all keen to establish new nuclear on Anglesey and are looking at
other sites in the UK...
(Paisley and Renfrewshire
North) (SNP):...The hon. Member for Ynys Môn alluded to the
announcement made yesterday that Rolls-Royce has
essentially match-funded the £210 million from the UK Government
to develop small modular reactors. Initially, the hope is to have
five SMRs at an estimated £2 billion a pop. We all know what
happens with estimates in the nuclear industry, but that is
another £10 billion that will likely end up on our energy bills
in capital cost alone...
The Minister of State, Department for Business, Energy and
Industrial Strategy ();...We are fully committed to
our key nuclear objectives of approving at least one large-scale
nuclear project during this Parliament and supporting the
development of exciting new technologies, including small modular
reactors. Good progress has been made on both counts. We have
been engaged in constructive negotiations on Sizewell, as I
mentioned, and we have also, just overnight, had a major
announcement about funding for the Rolls-Royce SMR
project. Funding for that project will be matched by private
investment. The question at the centre of this debate—that of
funding nuclear projects—is one of the key challenges given the
scale and complexity of nuclear plants and the time they take to
build...
