The programme took a significant step forward this week after Kwasi Kwarteng, the Business Secretary, asked government regulators to assess Rolls’s designs.
Britons are braced for energy bills to hit almost £2,000 a year from 1 April when the price cap goes up, with further rises on the horizon if oil and gas prices stay high. Petrol hit a new record of £1.61 a litre on Thursday, with diesel at £1.70 a litre.
Rolls may receive help in speeding up the selection of suitable locations managed by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, which manages the sites of old, defunct nuclear power plants. The smaller reactors can be placed there and take advantage of access to the power grid, existing security and a skilled workforce.
The government supports the programme and has supplied the project with £210m of funding, but safety demands are likely to win out when it comes to speed of deployment.
It has also set up the £120m Future Nuclear Enabling Fund which will be used to provide support for new innovations.
Supporters of a faster rollout point to the United Arab Emirates, which expressed an interest in nuclear generation in 2008 and began constructing the Korean-designed Barakah nuclear power plant in 2012, with the first power delivered to the grid in 2020.
A BEIS spokesman said: “Small Modular Reactors offer exciting opportunities to cut costs and build more quickly, ensuring we can bring clean electricity to people’s homes and reduce our exposure to volatile gas prices.
“While Small Modular Reactors do not yet exist, countries across the world are racing to develop the technology. Rolls-Royce has confirmed SMRs will be available to the UK grid in the early 2030s and we are working to their timeline, having already committed £210m of government funding.”
Rolls declined to comment.
