The UK’s ambitions to build small modular reactors may be realised as soon as 2025, according to Fluor Corporation’s NuScale unit, which is seeking to be a pioneer in the market, Bloomberg reported.
Bloomberg said NuScale plans to submit its 50-MW SMR design for approval by US nuclear authorities towards the end of 2016. That would leave it well-placed to seek the UK equivalent, called generic design assessment (GDA), in 2017, Tom Mundy, executive vice president for programme development at the US company, was reported as saying. “Assuming the GDA is submitted and takes four years, we’d be looking at approval in 2021,” Mr Mundy said. “There’s then a 36-month construction time, so it’s plausible to expect that if all things line up, we could have a UK plant built by 2025.”