UK frees up nuclear site selection to unshackle small reactor investments

UK nuclear planning reforms announced Feb. 6 will open up site selection and allow mini-reactors to be built where clean baseload power is needed, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said in a statement.

The government hopes the shake-up will help realize the UK's first small modular reactors, which it said are "cheaper, safer and quicker to build" than traditional nuclear plants and require smaller sites.

"I am 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," Starmer said.

Under the reforms, SMRs are to be included in a National Policy Statement for the first time. Restrictions on siting new nuclear projects will also be scrapped, while expiry dates on nuclear planning rules will be removed so that projects do not get "timed out."

Rules enacted in 2011 restrict new nuclear development in England and Wales to just eight sites: Bradwell, Hartlepool, Heysham, Hinkley Point, Oldbury, Sellafield, Sizewell and Wylfa.

While those locations remain attractive for nuclear development, removing the shackles on developers will enable them to identify the best sites, the government said.

Companies will be encouraged to propose potential locations as soon as possible at the pre-application stage of the planning process, it said. Community engagement, high environmental standards, and restrictions on development near densely populated areas and military activity will continue to apply.

The new rules will also give developers the flexibility to co-locate reactors with energy-intensive industrial sites such as AI data centers, the government said.

The plan to cut red tape for new nuclear comes after the government outlined rules Jan. 23 to make it more difficult to block major infrastructure projects, including nuclear plants, by reducing the legal avenues available to opponents.

"The British people have been left vulnerable to global energy markets for too long -- and the only way out is to build our way to a new era of clean electricity," Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said.

The announcement also includes the creation of a Nuclear Regulatory Taskforce to ensure regulation incentivizes investment and helps deliver projects quickly and cost-efficiently.

Strong signal

Tom Greatrex, CEO of the UK Nuclear Industry Association, said the nuclear planning reforms are the government's "strongest signal yet that new nuclear is critical to the growth and clean power mission."

"A more streamlined planning system will give certainty to investors, the supply chain and communities, and will enable us to get on with building new nuclear plants on more sites and at pace for a cleaner, more secure power system," he said.

Doug Parr, policy director for environmental group Greenpeace UK, questioned the government's claim that SMRs are cheaper, faster and safer than traditional reactors.

Parr called the move "courageous -- or stupid -- given that not a single one has been built, and with the nuclear industry's record of being over time and over budget unmatched by any other sector."

Warm words, tall orders

UK nuclear generation averaged 4.37 GW in 2024, unchanged on 2023 but down from 5.11 GW in 2022.

Reactor closures are set to lower capacity from 6 GW today to 3 GW in 2031, before commissioning of a first unit at Hinkley Point C begins to claw back the losses in the early 2030s.

Capacity is then set to rise to around 8 GW mid-decade as Hinkley completes and Sizewell C comes online, according to S&P Global Commodity Insights' long-term forecast, updated Jan. 29.

"It is worth noting Labour is still targeting a 95% clean power system by 2030, well before any new SMRs are likely to come online," said Glenn Rickson, head of short-term European power analysis at S&P Global Commodity Insights.

Removing the eight-site limit, meanwhile, made sense in practice, but the government may have to "burn a lot of political capital to get sites approved near where data centers want to connect in the southeast," Rickson said.

Finally, creating thousands of highly skilled jobs was laudable, but the reality in recent years has been one of a declining civil nuclear workforce, with skills focused on operation and maintenance rather than construction and commissioning, according to UK engineering qualifications body EAL.

There was also a significant skills gap in the civil nuclear energy supply chain, it said in a 2024 paper: "Without developing nuclear skills among small manufacturers, larger companies and initiatives are likely to struggle."

Beyond active development sites at Hinkley Point and Sizewell, Wylfa on Anglesey was "head and shoulders" above other potential venues for large new reactors, the Nuclear Industry Association told S&P Global Commodity Insights in 2024.

Meanwhile, engine maker Rolls-Royce previously said it would look to deploy its first modular reactor in the UK by the early 2030s, potentially at Trawsfynydd in Wales or at Moorside in Cumbria, near the Sellafield complex.