UK Opened Applications For Research Into HTGRs

Last week, the UK government announced new funding to support clean energy production in the country, including the development of next-generation reactors.

The funding includes £77 million (€89m) to bolster nuclear fuel production and support the development of the next generation of advanced nuclear reactors.

The UK government said it was committing to new and innovative nuclear energy with the announcement of funding worth up to £60 million (€68m) to kick start the next phase of research into the new cutting-edge high temperature gas reactor (HTGR), a type of advanced modular reactor (AMR), which could be up and running by the early 2030s.

The funding, from the Advanced Modular Reactor R&D programme, aims to get a demonstration project of the engineering design up and running by the end of the decade.

HTGRs are considered to strengthen UK’s energy sovereignty and security, by reducing reliance on fossil fuels, as well as generate by-products such as low-carbon hydrogen.

By generating temperatures of up to 950 degrees, HTGRs provide a source of clean, high temperature heat that could help decarbonise industrial processes in the UK.

The UK government’s funding announcements also included £4 million (€4.6m) for the AMR Knowledge Capture Project, which seeks to “facilitate knowledge capture and sharing to reduce the time, risk and cost of the programme delivery”.

Read the full Press Release.

The same day, the UK Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) awarded Westinghouse (ENS Corporate Member) £13 million (€14.9m) to explore the development of Uranium Conversion Services at the company’s Springfields facility in Lancashire, England.

The allocated funding will be used to prepare the necessary design and enable work to begin new conversion capability for the world’s utilities from 2028. The proposed facility would provide both reprocessed (RepU) and naturally occurring Uranium (NIU) conversion services to utilities around the world as they seek to diversify supplies and transition from Russian-provided services.

Read the Westinghouse Press Release.