Plant will become operational in 2031 and help secure fuel supply for country’s future nuclear stations
The UK government is awarding £196m (€227m, $244m) to Anglo-German-Dutch uranium enrichment services company Urenco to build a high essay low enriched uranium (Haleu) enrichment facility at Urenco’s existing site in Capenhurst, northern England, according to a joint statement on 8 May by the UK’s Department of Energy Security and Net Zero and the Cabinet Office.
The investment means the UK is the first country in Europe to invest in next generation of nuclear fuel, the government said.
It said the new facility will enhance energy security and help to secure fuel supply for the UK’s future nuclear power stations.
The facility will produce fuel by 2031 that would be ready for export or domestic use and could help power UK homes as soon as the next decade. It could also become Europe’s first facility of the kind, providing independence in the near future for the UK and other countries from reliance on Russia nuclear fuel and nuclear service imports.
“Russia has been the sole provider of this powerful nuclear fuel for too long and this marks the latest step in pushing” Vladimir Putin’s Russia out of the energy market entirely, UK prime minister Rishi Sunak said in the statement.
“The wider future of British nuclear remains a critical national endeavour guaranteeing nuclear and energy security, and reducing energy bills for Brits”, Sunak added.
Powering Next Generation Of Reactors
Urenco, which is one-third owned by the UK government, one-third by the Dutch government and one-third by a group of German utilities, said in a statement on 8 May that “we’re pleased to confirm investment from the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero to build an advanced fuels facility at our Capenhurst site. This will help power the next generation of nuclear reactors, providing both energy security and the advancement towards a net zero future.”
Claire Coutinho, the UK’s secretary of state for energy security and net zero, said: “Backing Urenco to build a uranium enrichment plant here in the UK will mean we are the first European nation outside Russia to produce advanced nuclear fuel.
The planned facility will cement the status of the northwest of England as a leading entity in nuclear fuel production, following Sunak’s pledge to “secure the future of the UK’s thriving nuclear industry by investing at least £763 million in skills, jobs, and education”, according to the government statement.
The facility will have the capacity to produce up to 10 metric tonnes of Haleu per year by 2031. When fabricated into fuel, 10 tonnes of Haleu could contain as much energy as over one million tonnes of coal, according to the statement.
The new funding is part of a £300m Haleu programme announced in January this year. Urenco, which is part owned by the UK government and already offers enrichment services, will co-fund the facility.
The facility will create around 400 highly skilled jobs, boosting the local supply chain and grow the economy, the government said.
Haleu is needed to power most advanced modular reactors, which are crucial to meeting the UK’s ambition to quadruple nuclear capacity by 2050, making it the biggest expansion of reactor capacity in 70 years.
Advanced nuclear plants can be made in factories and transform how power stations are built by making construction faster and less expensive.
£600 Million Competition For ‘Step’ Fusion Power
The UK government has also announced a competition for up to £600m in contracts to build the world’s first commercially viable fusion power station prototype.
The government will be inviting engineering and construction companies to bid for contracts to help build the Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production, or Step, plant at a former coal plant in Nottinghamshire, central England.
The competition, to be launched on 22 May, will seek to find industry partners – one in engineering and one in construction – to form “a world-leading public-private alliance” led by UK Industrial Fusion Solutions Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of UK Atomic Energy Authority Group, to deliver the Step prototype fusion plant, the government said.
A crucial part of Step’s mission is to develop a world-leading fusion supply chain to ensure the UK remains at the forefront of a new technology and emerging industry.
Fusion could generate a near limitless source of clean electricity, securing the UK’s long-term energy independence, the government noted in the statement.
The UK was the first country in the world to legislate for commercial fusion regulation, giving companies the confidence to invest.
New simpler planning measures will provide certainty to industry and strengthen the UK as a competitive location for investment, thus putting the nation on the front foot before fusion technology is ready to be deployed, the government statement said.
The government has also proposed designating all fusion plants nationally significant infrastructure projects, it said. Plants will be assessed by the Planning Inspectorate and would be ultimately approved by the secretary of state for energy.
