Planning reforms aimed at growing nuclear
DWF welcomes the Prime Minister’s announcement (6th February) that planning policies will be reformed to provide a clearer path for Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) to be built for the first time ever in the UK. The reforms are aimed at streamlining the planning process to enable SMRs to be built at multiple locations across England and Wales, not just in the eight existing nuclear sites specified in current planning rules.
The Government intends that the planning framework (once updated) should help to encourage investment and enable developers to identify the best sites for their projects, supporting development at a wider range of locations in support of the Government’s growth agenda and the energy transition required for the UK to achieve its net zero commitments. In particular, the removal of the current ‘sunset’ provision (which effectively puts a time limit on development at a prescribed list of sites), should further encourage and accelerate private sector developers/investors’ project schedules, helping them to bring forward a pipeline of new projects across a diverse range of sites.
Nuclear Regulatory Taskforce
In addition, a Nuclear Regulatory Taskforce will be established to ensure nuclear regulation incentivises investment to enable the delivery of new projects more quickly and cost efficiently, while upholding high safety and security standards. The taskforce - which will report directly to the Prime Minister - will speed up the approval of new reactor designs and streamline how developers engage with regulators. This taskforce is intended to better align the UK with international partners, to facilitate reactor designs approved outside the UK, could be approved more quickly, minimising expensive changes.
AI Growth Zones
These announcements come hot on the heel of announcements (last month) around AI development being a strategic priority for growing the UK economy, with the Government establishing a new AI Energy Council to study the opportunities for "renewable and innovative energy solutions, including small modular reactors" as part of the UK Government's plan for AI, and outlining plans for specific 'AI Growth Zones' to be established to speed the build-out of AI data centres, "with enhanced access to power and support for planning approvals". The first of these is set to be at Culham, near Oxford, home to the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA), the JET project and a host of nuclear fusion companies and researchers.
Developers are being encouraged to bring forward sites as soon as possible at the pre-application stage in the planning process, to expedite overall timelines, and we await further detail on how the above will work in practice, to support decarbonisation and the delivery of secure, affordable, low carbon energy.
