UK seeking feedback on small high temperature nuclear reactor programme

The UK government’s Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) is seeking feedback from the nuclear industry and other stakeholders on its proposed timescale and structure for a High Temperature Gas Reactor (HTGR) demonstration programme. BEIS had announced in December that HTGRs would be the focus of the country’s Advanced Modular Reactor (AMR) programme. “The aim of the programme is to demonstrate that HTGRs can produce high temperature heat which could be used for low-carbon hydrogen production, process heat for industrial and domestic use and cost-competitive electricity generation, in time for any potential commercial AMRs to support Net Zero by 2050,” stated BEIS. (South Africa’s effectively abandoned Pebble Bed Modular Reactor was an HTGR.)