Antinuclear

Nuclear lobbyists have continued to try to build a head of steam behind Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) in the UK.

In NuClear News No.68 November 2014  we reported that Jim Green of FoE Australia had described this pro-SMR campaign as an implicit admission that existing reactors aren’t up to the

job. SMRs are a new occupant in the graveyard of the nuclear renaissance – but the problem is

no-one wants to buy one.

………..in August NuClear News No.65 reported that the Union of Concerned Scientists in the US point out that the economies of scale dictate that, all other things being equal, larger reactors will generate cheaper power. Even if SMRs could eventually be more cost-effective than larger reactors due to mass production, this advantage will only come into play when many SMRs are in operation. But

utilities are unlikely to invest in SMRs until they can produce competitively.

The Washington-based Institute for Energy and Environmental Research (IEER) says SMRs will

probably require tens of billions of dollars in federal subsidies or government purchase orders

and create serious concerns in relation to both safety and proliferation. By spreading SMRs

around the globe we will increase the proliferation risk because safeguarded spent fuel and

numerous small reactors would be a much more complex task than safeguarding fewer large

reactors……..

Speaking at the Nuclear New Build conference yesterday, shadow energy minister Tom Greatrex