Small reactors pose a real security threat
I WAS extremely concerned to read that Rolls Royce, who lead a consortium wanting to use Wales a guinea pig nation for its experimental Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) told your chief reporter, Martin Shipton that they would pose no security problems (“Nuclear consultant’s fears over new power plants plan,” WM, February 26).
This is dangerously misleading in several ways.
In a very detailed 70-page paper I presented at the annual very pronuclear European Nuclear Energy Forum (ENEF) in Bratislava in Slovakia in June 2018, I set out the specific security vulnerabilities of SMRs.
The participants from several countries wishing to develop SMRs and backed by several prospective vendors of SMRs took on board my concerns.
Indeed, despite the strong nuclear-supportive leanings of ENEF, its final declaration included the following statement recording that the forum: “Highlights that larger scale introduction of small modular reactors introduces new questions, including the increased risks for malevolent attack when reactors are more widely geographically spread, and increased risks for nuclear proliferation, ” and added, “Safety and security specificities related to several units operated simultaneously in the same plant should be carefully analysed.”
In light of such international caution on SMR, I am worried that senior Welsh politicians – especially from the otherwise nuclear-sceptic Plaid Cymru – such as its current Parliamentary leader, Liz SavilleRoberts, and former leader, Lord Wigley, are still uncritically cheerleading for SMRs.
Last Monday Dafydd Wigley asked the business and energy minister in the Lords: “Did the answer that she gave on the involvement of nuclear power stations in 2035 assume that no SMRs will be active by that time? Is that the Government’s policy and, if not, when will the SMRs come on stream?”
Baroness Bloomfield of Hinton Waldrist replied: “The Government’s policy is firmly to encourage the development of SMRs in a number of sites, including – the noble Lord’s own passion – Trawsfynydd (and in Cumbra). He will have seen the announcement that Rolls-Royce is looking at both sites. We are still investing a lot of R&D money in consortiums that aim to provide small nuclear reactors that contribute to the national grid, although my original answer did not include the contribution that they could make.”
She belatedly added: “However, safety and security are of paramount importance to the UK Government, and any investments in the UK energy market are subject to a thorough national security review.”
Why is Rolls Royce so dismissive of the very real, and possibly unresolvable, security risks for Wales of proposed SMRs, when it is clear even others who are pro-SMRs, such as the UK Government and SMR lobbyists within the EU, accept there are serious security questions to be addressed?
As someone born and raised in Neath, I do not want my home nation despoiled by reckless dispersion of these highly contentious reactors.
Dr David Lowry, Senior international research fellow, Institute for Resource and Security Studies Cambridge, Massachusetts