More nuclear power plants will be approved across England and Wales as the Prime Minister slashes red tape to get Britain building – as part of his Plan for Change.
Reforms to planning rules will clear a path for smaller, safer, and easier to build nuclear reactors – known as Small Modular Reactors –to be built for the first time ever in the UK. This will create thousands of new highly skilled jobs while delivering clean, secure and more affordable energy. In this article the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero outline the latest steps in the Government’s determination to grow the economy and deliver cleaner, more affordable energy.
This is the latest refusal to accept the status quo, with the government ripping up archaic rules and saying no to the NIMBYs, to prioritise growth. It comes after recent changes to planning laws, the scrapping of the 3-strike rule for judicial reviews on infrastructure projects, and application of common-sense to environmental rules.
The UK was the first country in the world to develop a nuclear reactor, but the last time a nuclear power station was built was back in 1995. None have been built since, leaving the UK lagging behind in a global race to harness cleaner, more affordable energy.
The industry pioneered in Britain has been suffocated by regulations and this saw investment collapse, leaving only one nuclear power plant – Hinkley Point C – under construction. And this was after years of delay caused by unnecessary rules – meaning companies produced a 30,000-page environmental assessment to get planning permission.
Meanwhile, China is constructing 29 reactors, and the EU has 12 at planning stage, giving these places a huge advantage in the global race to harness new technologies, create jobs and deliver cleaner, cheaper, independent energy.
Investors want to get on and build reliable, cheap nuclear power, which will in turn support critical modern infrastructure, such as supercomputers to power the UK’s ambitions – but they have been held back.
Today’s plan will shake up the planning rules to make it easier to build nuclear across the country – delivering jobs, cheaper bills in the long term, and more money in people’s back pockets. This will be achieved by:
- Including mini-nuclear power stations in planning rules for the first time – so firms can start building them in the places that need them.
- Scrapping the set list of 8-sites – which meant nuclear sites could be built anywhere across England and Wales.
- Removing the expiry date on nuclear planning rules – so projects don’t get timed out and industry can plan for the long term.
- Setting up a Nuclear Regulatory Taskforce – that will spearhead improvements to the regulations to help more companies build here. This will report directly to the PM.
This is the Government delivering on a manifesto commitment to galvanise nuclear to help the UK achieve energy security and clean power, while securing thousands of good, clean jobs.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer said, “This country hasn’t built a nuclear power station in decades. we’ve been let down, and left behind.
“Our energy security has been hostage to Putin for too long, with British prices skyrocketing at his whims.
“I’m putting an end to it – changing the rules to back the builders of this nation, and saying no to the blockers who have strangled our chances of cheaper energy, growth and jobs for far too long.
“My government was elected to deliver change. I’ll take the radical decisions needed to wrestle Britain from its status quo slumber, to turbocharge our plan for change.”
Currently, nuclear development is restricted to eight sites – as part of archaic planning rules that haven’t been looked at since 2011. With the reforms unveiled today, the refreshed planning framework will help streamline the process to encourage investment and enable developers to identify the best sites for their projects, supporting development at a wider range of locations.
Developers will be encouraged to bring forward sites as soon as possible at the pre-application stage in the planning process, speeding up overall timelines.
It will include new nuclear technologies such as small and advanced modular reactors for the first time, providing flexibility to co-locate them with energy intensive industrial sites such as AI data centres.
These technologies are cheaper, safer and quicker to build than traditional nuclear power plants and require smaller sites, meaning they can be built in a greater variety of locations.
There will also continue to be robust criteria for nuclear reactor locations, including restrictions near densely populated areas and military activity, alongside community engagement and high environmental standards.
Alongside reforms to the siting process, a specialist taskforce will lead on making sure nuclear regulation incentivises investment, to deliver new projects more quickly and cost efficiently, while upholding high safety and security standards.
Britain is currently considered one of the world’s most expensive countries in which to build nuclear power. The taskforce will speed up the approval of new reactor designs and streamline how developers engage with regulators.
Nuclear regulation will cover both civil and defence nuclear to help unlock economic growth in the sector.
The taskforce will better align the UK with international partners so reactor designs approved abroad could be green lit more quickly, minimising expensive changes. It will also examine how to reduce duplication and simplify processes where there are multiple regulators covering overlapping issues, as well as ensuring regulatory decisions are both safe and proportionate.
The work will help the issues faced by projects such as Hinkley Point C, where three European regulators reached different assessments on the reactor design, leading to delays and increased costs.
The UK’s rigorous safety standards and record will continue to be upheld. Nuclear plants are designed with multiple layers of safety measures including making them robust enough to withstand a direct aircraft impact.
Since July, the government has committed to driving forward new nuclear including further funding for Sizewell C at the Autumn Budget 2024.
Great British Nuclear also continues to progress the small modular reactor competition, with contract negotiations currently underway.
