Government in talks to build ‘hundreds’ of mini-nuclear reactors across UK
Last Energy, backed by investor in Elon Musk’s businesses, has identified its first location
A US energy developer backed by a fund linked to Elon Musk is in talks with the Government to build a fleet of small nuclear reactors across the UK.
Last Energy wants to build its first “mini-nuclear” power plant by 2025 and has identified its first site in Wales, The Sunday Telegraph has learnt.
The company intends to spend £1.4bn on 10 reactors by the end of the decade. Last Energy’s end goal is to build “hundreds of plants” across the UK, sources close to the company said.
The proposals are a direct challenge to Rolls-Royce, which is racing to secure approval for its own British-made fleet of mini reactors.
Last Energy is one of 12 select investments by start-up backer Gigafund.
Three of these – SpaceX, The Boring Company, and Neuralink – are founded by Mr Musk, 50, the world’s richest person and chief executive of electric car maker Tesla.
Gigafund’s managing partner Luke Nosek sits on the board of SpaceX, the rocket company which made its maiden civilian voyage in September last year.
Mr Musk, worth an estimated $287bn (£220bn), has made little secret of his support for nuclear energy.
Last month, he said on Twitter: “It is now extremely obvious that Europe should restart dormant nuclear power stations and increase power output of existing ones… This is critical to national and international security.
“For those who (mistakenly) think this is a radiation risk, pick what you think is the worst location. I will travel there [and] eat locally grown food on TV. I did this in Japan many years ago, shortly after Fukushima. Radiation risk is much, much lower than most people believe.”
Last Energy met with Government aides last week to discuss plans.
Its reactors are considerably smaller than those of competitors and are forecast to cost £50m and are prefabricated before being transported by 80 lorries, company insiders claimed.
Each plant is the size of a football pitch and the height of a double-decker bus – roughly half the size of rival reactors proposed by Rolls.
Representatives from Last Energy are believed to have told Whitehall officials that they want the UK to be the company’s “test bed” and insist that its plants will be up and running years before Rolls-Royce.
It is believed to have asked the Government for a commitment to pay £75 per MWh, considerably less than the £92.50 that the UK is locked in to paying the much larger Hinkley Point C nuclear plant once it is up and running.
Rolls-Royce is throwing its engineering prowess behind so-called small modular reactors (SMR). Last year it received more than £200m in taxpayer support to develop the plants.
SMR use nuclear fission but are smaller than conventional counterparts. Currently, about 16pc of UK electricity generation comes from nuclear power.
telegraph.co.uk |
