We are pleased to announce that the UK Government has awarded Holtec Britain £30 million of grant funding from the Future Nuclear Enabling Fund for Holtec to complete Steps 1 and 2 of the Generic Design Assessment (GDA) as the first step towards UK deployment of our Small Modular Reactor SMR-300.
Holtec looks forward to putting our advanced Pressurised Water Reactor (PWR), designed with inherent safety, through the scrutiny of the UK regulators; the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) the Environment Agency (EA) and Natural Resources Wales (NRW), while continuing our ongoing pre-application dialogue with the USNRC and other regulators in parallel. Holtec, which has been a prominent supplier of goods and services to the UK nuclear program for over 25 years, has assembled a strong team of British companies including Mott MacDonald, along with Team Holtec’s global alliance partners, Hyundai E&C (Seoul, Korea) and Mitsubishi Electric (Kobe, Japan).
UK Minister for Nuclear Andrew Bowie said: “As the Government that revitalized the UK nuclear industry, committing public funds to nuclear for the first time in a generation, we’re rapidly expanding our nuclear power capacity to move towards a cleaner energy mix and help deliver net zero. Today’s news represents a multi-million investment to develop cutting-edge technology which could transform how power stations are built by making construction faster and cheaper.”
Separately to the GDA, Holtec is participating in the Great British Nuclear SMR competition, where the UK Government’s ambition is to announce in 2024, which companies the government will support for technology deployment. We are planning a large expansion in the region should Holtec be successful in the Great British Nuclear competition, locating a factory to build the major mechanical SMR components and other aligned areas of business (clean energy & defense) to support deployment of 5 GW+ of on-grid UK electricity by 2050. Holtec is committed to UK job creation by the thousands, serving as a long-term strategic partner to the UK.
It should be noted that SMR-300 is a PWR reactor technology based on existing standards in the US and UK and uses PWR fuel similar to that already used at Sizewell B, and other new UK reactors under development including Hinkley Point C. This is reported to enable economic viability of fuel fabrication and back-end disposal of the fuel, supporting UK energy independence. Director of Holtec Britain, Mr. Gareth Thomas, stated: “We are pleased to have started GDA after planning the project for over 18 months, and are now building a large team of qualified engineers based out of our new office in Bristol, UK. In parallel we are advancing project delivery plans with our Global Team, unrivalled in nuclear power plant deployment experience.”
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