Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps he is taking to develop new nuclear power stations.

This Government is committed to nuclear power as part of the country’s future diverse energy mix. Hinkley Point C is under construction and, when operational, will supply 3.2GW of secure, low carbon electricity for around 60 years, providing enough power for around 6 million homes. The Government is committed to approving at least one new large-scale nuclear project this Parliament, subject to value for money and all relevant approvals. The Government announced up to £1.7 billion of funding in the last Spending Review to support this objective and have been in constructive negotiations on the Sizewell C project since January 2021. On 27th January, the Government entered into a Combined Option agreement with EDF, providing £100 million of funding to further mature the project, attract investors, and advance to the next phase in the negotiations.

The Government has also announced a £385 million Advanced Nuclear Fund. From this, £210 million has been committed in grant funding to Rolls-Royce SMR to develop their small modular reactor design and their continued advanced modular reactor development. The Government also announced a new £120 million Nuclear Enabling Fund to provide targeted support to address barriers to entry for future nuclear. Further details on the fund will be announced in due course.

Later this year, the Government will publish a nuclear roadmap setting out the Government’s strategy in more detail. The Nuclear Energy (Financing) Bill is currently in Parliament. This will introduce a Regulated Asset Base model for nuclear projects and reduce the obstacles to financing new nuclear projects.