Nuclear Regulatory Taskforce Review

Lord Bellingham Excerpts

Thursday 27th November 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Vallance of Balham (Lab)]

I think both the previous question and this question refer to something which is a big problem: we have neglected nuclear in this country for far too long and it is important that we get moving on it, both with small modular reactors and with advanced modular reactors. That is why there are plans for both of those now. EN-7, which was laid before the House as a strategic framework for this, lays out the need to be much more forward leaning on both of those and get them into this country as soon as we can.

[Lord Bellingham (Con)]

My Lords, in September the US and UK signed a nuclear partnership worth £76 billion. Can the Minister tell the House what the impact on this partnership will be of a decision by the UK Government to turn down Westinghouse’s nuclear power plans for Wylfa? Did the Minister have a chance to see the remarks by the new outstanding US ambassador, His Excellency Warren Stephens the other day?

[Lord Vallance of Balham (Lab)]

A decision was made to get on with small modular reactors, and Wylfa is the site for that. That will start next year. At the same time, we have started a programme to look at other sites for gigawatt scale nuclear, which would include the Westinghouse programme. We will be working with Westinghouse and others as we look at potential sites around the country. That work started with urgency. We recognise that, in order to get the nuclear power that we need, we will probably need a mix of small modular reactors, advanced modular reactors and indeed more gigawatt reactors.