Nuclear option
Rolls-Royce have been making safe nuclear reactors for our submarines for over 50 years. Now they are upscaling that technology to produce factory-built small modular reactors each of which will generate 470MW of zero carbon electricity for at least 60 years.
Already the Roll-Royce SMR consortium have signed a £3.7m contract with Sheffield Forgemaster, the world leaders in forgings and castings to design the forgings required.
Each of these reactors will produce enough electricity to power one million homes 365 days a year regardless of weather conditions. Each will require only a small site and the reactor is small enough to be transported by lorry.
Their supply chain is British although they have attracted investment from overseas. Their export potential is huge. And their production will stimulate a renaissance in UK research and high-end technology; already Rolls-Royce have established 25 University Technology Centres throughout the country.
If we compare SMRs with wind farms the benefits are obvious. Wind energy is intermittent. Last year there were many periods of calm conditions including one lengthy spell which recorded the calmest conditions for ten years. The more wind farms there are the harder it becomes for National Grid’s control room at Warwick to balance the Grid as it must do at 50Hz.
While windfarms need millions of tons of concrete poured onto the countryside and hundreds of miles of access roads, SMRs do not scar the countryside; they have a footprint smaller than a large Tesco. Unlike wind companies which are mostly foreign-owned, like Spanish-owned Scottish Power, they will be produced by a British company here in Britain and and exported, not imported.
However, thanks to the SNP, Scotland will not benefit from this modern technology as it turns its back on sinews of industry in its new Green guise.
William Loneskie, Lauder, Berwickshire
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