By AFP - Agence France Presse
UK to speed up deployment of mini-nuclear reactors
Britain's Labour government said Thursday that changes to planning laws will speed up the deployment of mini-nuclear reactors in the country to provide cheaper and cleaner energy.
“Reforms to planning rules will pave the way for smaller, safer, and easier to build nuclear reactors - known as Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) - to be built for the first time in the UK,” said a statement.
“This will create thousands of new highly skilled jobs while providing clean, safe, and more affordable energy for workers.”
The government led by Prime Minister Keir Starmer noted that China is building 29 reactors, and the European Union has 12 in the planning stage.
“My government was elected to promote change,” said Starmer, whose party came to power in July after 14 years of conservative rule.
“I will take the radical decisions necessary to lift Britain out of its status quo slumber, to turbocharge our change plan.”
The current plans restrict nuclear development to just eight sites in the UK.
Greenpeace has expressed skepticism about the changes while calling on the government to focus on renewable energy, which includes wind and solar energy.
Labour presents “as fact things that are merely optimistic conjecture about the cost, speed of delivery and safety of small nuclear reactors, which is brave - or stupid - given that none have been built,” said Greenpeace's policy director Doug Parr in a statement.
Although it removed the limit on the number of sites, the government stressed on Thursday that “there will continue to be robust criteria for the siting of nuclear reactors, including restrictions near densely populated areas and military activities”, adding that it would take environmental impacts into account.
Labour believes that easing regulations in various sectors will help grow a stagnant British economy. It argues that for the nuclear sector, this should help accelerate net-zero carbon emissions and improve energy security.
“The British people have been left vulnerable to global energy markets for too long - and the only way out is to build our way into a new era of clean electricity,” said Energy Secretary Ed Miliband in the joint statement.
Britain has five nuclear power stations in operation, four of which will have their lifespan extended, according to an announcement made in December by their French operator EDF, as the UK aims to fully decarbonize its energy grid by 2030.
EDF, which is building the new Hinkley Point C nuclear plant in southwest England, decided last year to withdraw its interest in building the British SMRs.
bcp/jkb/lth
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