Kees van der LeunToday, the EC came up with a €200 million (yes, with an m!) guarantee fund for innovative nuclear technologies and now we will have operational SMRs by the early 2030s. Call me sceptical :)
A mini-fund for mini-reactors.
One Rolls Royce (not-so-)Small Modular Reactor is 470 MW. Assuming Hinkley Point C costs for the first one, that'd cost a little more than €8 billion. And assuming the EC would badly want to sponsor British technology, the whole fund announced today would pay 2.5% of the bill.
And: while the UK, after pushing this for many years, working on regulatory approval and choosing a site, says the first one can be ready by the mid-2030s, the EC can still make it work by the early 2030s ;)
To add to today's dynamism, Dutch public TV news show @Nieuwsuur_online reports a 'growing clamor for SMRs' in The Netherlands. In my neigbourhood it's still quiet, but they found a village in North-Holland (Opmeer) where 'they' want one. Not sure if they already raised the €8 billion, though.
Ruben Zondervan@Sustainable2050 @Nieuwsuur_online On #Opmeer: sloppy decision making and a botched-up feasibility study: https://rzondervan.eu/prutsen-in-de-polder-met-een-smr/ and follow-up: https://rzondervan.eu/prutsen-in-de-polder-vervolg/ This local administration is simply not up to the task, regardless of whether or not an #SMR is a good idea.
