Torness ideal for small modular reactor, says Britain Remade

Britain Remade, a group co-founded by a former energy and climate advisor to Boris Johnson, says that Torness, near Dunbar, is an ideal target for small modular reactors of the type that the UK Government recently backed.

Sam Richards, co-founder of the campaign, said:“Torness has got the expertise, the grid connections, the water supply and everything else that you would need to be a site for one of these new next generation reactors.”

Also important, said Mr Richards, is that a site with nuclear history, like Torness, tends to have “local buy-in”.

“One of the most important local resources at Torness,” he said, “would be the fact that you’ve already got that local support, which is a challenge for lots of infrastructure in bits of the country where sometimes there are campaigns against new pylons or new turbines or whatever it be.

"That would not be the case here. You’ve got some of that infrastructure already, but also you’ve got some of that local support.

“What we’ve found with our campaign across the country to make it easier to build the new infrastructure that we need, that those areas that have hosted nuclear power plants before, be that Torness, or Anglesey in North Wales, or Dungeness in Kent, are incredibly supportive of new nuclear because they know the job benefits that come with it.”

Britain Remade, which is strongly focussed on campaigning for “nuclear power alongside the rapid roll-out of renewables” and infrastructure-building to drive growth, hosted a public meeting in Dunbar in April.

The event's promotional material asked: “Will Torness have a future in the next generation of nuclear energy, or will we lose out on jobs, investment and energy security?”

(Image: georgeclerk) The campaign also conducted a poll which found that half of the SNP’s voters believed nuclear power should be part of Scotland’s mix of clean energy generation.

“Of course we’re going to need many more windfarms and solar, and you’ll need the pylons to deliver that as well, but you are going to need a reliable source of power for when the wind isn’t blowing and the sun isn’t shining, and for a long time in Scotland, that source has been nuclear. But it won’t be able to play that role if the Scottish Government ban remains in place.”   

But many in Scotland still maintain a strong objection to nuclear.

Pete Roche, who campaigned against Torness in the 1970s, founding the Scottish Campaign to Resist the Atomic Menace, said: “The last thing Scotland needs at Torness is more reactors, whether large or small.

"Incidentally, Rolls Royce's so-called small reactors at 470MW are only slightly smaller than Torness's two 660MW reactors.” 

Britain Remade was launched in Yorkshire in 2022. The campaign's main objective is “getting the economy going by making it easier to build the homes that we need, the new transport links that we need and the new sources of clean power that we need”.

The group also campaign against environmental regulations which they say are “crippling the building of new homes, infrastructure and the clean energy sources Britain needs”. 

 “As things stand,” Mr Richards said, “at the end of this decade, Torness is set to close. The lights on nuclear energy will go out in Scotland. Obviously, just 10 years ago, Scotland was producing about 40 per cent of its power from clean and safe and reliable nuclear energy.

“Scotland, a country with a proud nuclear heritage, should be looking to build a next generation of reactors and clearly the sites that make most sense for that are those that already have lots of infrastructure, already are clearly good sites for power plants, already have a local buy-in and local expertise.”

Nuclear power, Mr Richards also said, could be key in powering the giant, electricity-gobbling datacentres needed for artificial intelligence.

He said: “For the datacentres that you need for AI, you need a constant supply of cheap electricity and there’s a reason why a lot of the developers in Silicon Valley are signing memorandums of understanding with nuclear developers because they know that this is a way for them to have constant 24/7 reliable power."

Earlier this month, the UK Government announced its selection of Rolls-Royce SMR as the preferred bidder “to develop small modular reactors, subject to final government approvals and contract signature – marking a new golden age of nuclear in the UK”.

Mr Richards said: “SMRs are already being deployed in Canada. The idea behind them is that because you build them in a factory and 90 per cent of the construction of them is done in a factory, you’re rolling them off a production line and, because of that, you get all of the cost reductions of economies of scale, of learning by doing, and you’re able to build them a lot cheaper than the current design.”

But that cost reduction remains much debated and one of the criticisms levelled by the Scottish Government, and others, is that nuclear power is very expensive.

Mr Richards blamed some of that high price on “the cost of environmental regulations”. He also maintained that SMRs will come down in price over time.

“Because they are modular,” he said, “and they can build 90 per cent of them in a factory, you get those economies of scale. And all the projections are that the costs will come down significantly to the point where it is significantly cheaper than the large-scale nuclear we are building now, cheaper than new gas, and when you take into account the intermittency costs, even cheaper than renewables as well.”

An artist's impression of a design for an SMR for Western Gateway in Gloucestershire (Image: Western Gateway) However, a recent analysis of the technology in the United States said that SMRs are projected to be the most expensive of all electricity technologies per KW.

The report by management consultancy firm ICF found that they would cost more than any other source of electricity, including battery energy storage systems, solar, wind, combustion turbines and gas.

Campaigner Mr Roche said: “There is no evidence that small modular reactors will be cheaper, because almost none have ever been built.

"In fact, it is beginning to look like small reactors will be even more expensive than large reactors because they won't benefit from economies of scale.”

Energy Secretary Gillian Martin said: “The Scottish Government is focussed on supporting growth and creating jobs by capitalising on Scotland’s immense renewable energy capacity rather than expensive new nuclear energy, which takes decades to build and creates toxic waste which is difficult and costly to dispose of.

“However, we recognise the significant value that Torness and its workforce has contributed to Scotland's economy and local community.

“Decommissioning Scotland’s nuclear sites will take decades and will require the retention of a highly skilled workforce.

"Meanwhile, the significant growth in renewables, storage hydrogen, carbon capture and decommissioning are key opportunities for our future energy workforce in Scotland – with independent scenarios from Ernst and Young (EY), showing that, with the right support, Scotland’s low-carbon and renewable-energy sector could support nearly 80,000 jobs by 2050."