STAND is convinced that the untried and purely speculative Small Modular Reactor (SMR) programme recently announced by the Government will not only fail but will divert resources from tried and tested renewables. 

 

Here at STAND we consider the whole issue of SMR’s to be of critical importance, both to Severnside, where 4 such reactors are mooted for the decommisioned Oldbury site (soon to be inundated by rising sea levels), and for the nation as a whole. Because of this we have created this whole new section on the viability of SMR’s, where over the coming months you can keep abreast of the arguments for and against. 

 

Incidentally, according to the Berkeley Stakeholders Group meeting which STAND attended recently, these reactors are NOT small. Each one is the size of the old Oldbury reactor, and it is proposed there will be 4 of them on the site!

 

Steve Thomas, an emeritus professor of energy policy at the University of Greenwich, said: “Yet again, the British government has proved credulous to the claims of the nuclear industry that a new generation of technology will solve all the problems of its predecessors. 

 

 “SMRs are a long way from being commercially ready and at best will be as uneconomic as existing technology and at worst won’t even be technically feasible. The answers to reaching net zero with electricity are already available – energy efficiency and renewables. This announcement will only divert time and resources from these.”

Read the full article here: Guardian, 18 July 2023