Author Archives: HM Government

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) has up to £44 million to invest in an advanced modular reactor feasibility and development programme.

Up to £4 million pound is available for projects that look into the feasibility of designing new reactors that maximise the amount of off-site building and can generate lower cost electricity and provide additional benefits.

A further £40 million could be available to develop the best projects from the first phase of the competition.

The funding is for contracts under the SBRI (Small Business Research Initiative).

Providing low-cost electricity

The government believes nuclear energy will be an important part of the future energy mix. However, it needs to be competitive with other sources of low-carbon energy or provide additional benefits and functionality.

BEIS is looking for projects that focus on at least one of the following areas:

• low-cost electricity generation
• increased flexibility in providing electricity to the grid
• additional functionality such as heat output for domestic or industrial use or production of hydrogen
• alternative applications that could generate revenue and economic growth such as radioisotope production

Competition information

• the competition opens on 7 December 2017, and the deadline for registration is at midday on 7 February 2018
• SBRI is open to any organisation that can demonstrate a route to market for its idea
• projects should be led by organisations with experience in nuclear reactor technologies. They are encouraged to work with innovative organisations both inside and outside the sector
• we expect contracts for feasibility projects to be up to £300,000 and for projects to last up to 8 months
• successful projects will attract 100% funded development contracts
• a briefing event will be held on 12 December 2017