From NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT

By Paul Homewood

The tortoise has advanced a few more inches!

The Statement notes:

As part of the government’s modern Industrial Strategy to revive Britain’s industrial heartlands, the government is pledging over £2.5 billion for the overall small modular reactor programme in this Spending Review period – with this project potentially supporting up to 3,000 new skilled jobs and powering the equivalent of around 3 million homes with clean, secure homegrown energy.

There is no detail on how that £2.5 billion will be paid out, or whether it will be CAPEX subsidies or CfD support.

The reference to “3 million homes” indicates annual generation of about 1 TWh, just 3% of UK consumption, which will barely make a dent. It also suggest capacity of about 140 MW.

The Government also state that these SMRs will come on stream in the 2030s.

If they are as wonderful as Ed Miliband suggests, (I suspect through gritted teeth!), we should put an immediate halt to new offshore wind farms and launch a rapid deployment of SMRs instead.