As well as using less land, SMRs instead will not require thousands of miles of new transmission pylons, either. So what’s not to like?
It’s almost a decade since chancellor George Osborne trumpeted a new nuclear renaissance built around SMR technology. The previous government established Great British Nuclear – a rebranded British Nuclear Fuels – a quango with a goal to create 24 gigawatts of new nuclear capacity by 2050. Both Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak were nuclear boosters. So why has the Government gone quiet?
Miliband has been supportive of nuclear power in the past. In 2009, he urged the Trades Union Congress’s annual conference to get behind atomic energy, arguing that “ ‘Nuclear Power: No Thanks’ today means ‘climate change no doubt’ tomorrow”. A typically tortured phrase, but a recognition of nuclear power’s value.
You wouldn’t think that today. Recent messages from Miliband on X, formerly Twitter, have promoted renewables but not the SMR programme that he most needs.
Perhaps now he’s in his old office, the student activist within Miliband has been reanimated. Last week he caved in to Greenpeace and decided not to oppose a judicial review request on oil and gas exploration licences in the North Sea. Greenpeace, of course, is the NGO that’s the most active opponent of nuclear power.
Miliband seems far too easily shamed by the pious environmentalists too. Recall how in his first stint as energy minister, Miliband slapped the carbon capture requirement on new coal plants after being berated by the late actor-activist Pete Postlethwaite following a climate change movie. One suspects that making green NGOs happy is the part of the job that Miliband likes the most.
By dragging his feet on nuclear, Miliband is storing up trouble for us all. For we’re heading towards a catastrophic precipice. This will be our first winter without coal. At the same time, four of our ageing but reliable nuclear reactor fleet will soon close too.