Great Britain has to set plans for the construction of 20 mini core reactors if it wants to secure factories that produce the components for the up -and -coming technology, said one of the leading developers.
GE Hitachi is seen as a front manager in the state competition to select which SMR designs (small modular reactor) will take part in up to 20 billion GBP in financial resources in Great Britain.
Maví Zingoni, Managing Director of Power at his parent company GE Vernova, said to The Times: “When it comes to where we will make it, it depends on the vision we have. Where the modules are done, this is the decision that we are making, and it will depend on where the Volume is. Are we concentrating on an SMR or do we concentrate on a fleet of 20? “
Zingoni said that Great Britain does not have to enter into a concrete commitment to construction 20 today, but if it was a long -term vision for so many SMRs in the entire sector as a whole, it is “the entire overall chain built there”.
She said that several other countries were interested in using their technology. “That is why visibility is really important and it is so important to be to the first moving companies.”
She also asked the ministers to adhere to the selection of two winning technologies.
Proponents argue that SMRs with modular components in factories could help reduce the costs and time for the construction of new nuclear power plants and could be used at more locations. Such a reactor can participate in the size of Leeds.
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GE Vernova is a company listed in New York last year by General Electric. The nuclear business is a partnership with the Japanese company Hitachi and, along with Rolls-Royce, Holtec and Westinghouse in the British government competition, was drawn into a narrower election, which is expected to be of direct importance after completing the final offers this month.
Rolls-Royce is considered a favorite after he has already received more than £ 200 million of state funds, but GE Hitachi is also well placed after his technology has received a regulatory approval of Canada, which is the first SMR that was built in a G7 nation. Both companies and HOLTEC confirmed that they had submitted final offers, but Westinghouse declined to say whether this was the case and the speculation that it may have decreased from the process.
It is assumed that the competition will initially be awarded to two developers of two developers up to 1.5 gigawatts of their technology or between three and five reactors depending on the size of the reactor.
“We are the only company that already has a commercial contract,” said Zingoni, adding that his Canadian reactor should be in operation before the end of this decade and “could be used faster than with any other SMR”. She said Hitachi hoped to start building in four to five years, and the construction could take less than three years, which means that it could start in 2032.
The design was based on the existing large-scale boiling water reactor technology that had been used worldwide, and “We know very well” and would “make a fuel that we already manufacture”. She refused to disclose cost estimates for the reactor.