The U.K. Department for Energy Security & Net Zero has awarded a $42.6 million grant to GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy, a GE Vernova unit, under the Future Nuclear Enabling Fund to support London’s goal of 24 gigawatts of nuclear power generation capacity by 2050. The FNEF has an allocation of up to $152.2 million to help mature U.K. nuclear energy projects.
GE said the funding will support the development of the company’s BWRX-300 small modular reactor design in the United Kingdom. The SMR is also undergoing deployment in Ontario, Canada, and Tennessee in the United States.
Jacobs, Laing O’Rourke and Cavendish Nuclear, which supported GEH in the FNEF application, will also assist in BWRX-300’s generic design assessment by U.K. regulators, who will check compliance with safety, security and environmental protection standards.
In December, the DESNZ awarded Holtec Britain the first FNEF grant of $38.2 million to develop the company’s pressurized water reactor design.
Aside from the FNEF initiative, the DESNZ announced in early January a Civil Nuclear Roadmap setting ways for the United Kingdom to increase nuclear energy generation to supply one-fourth of its electric power requirements.