Sizewell C nuclear plant gets green light while robotics advances clean-up tech
The UK Government agrees final investment decision, while robotics specialists report a 'world first'.
The National Wealth Fund - the government’s principal investor and policy bank - is making its first investment in nuclear energy. It will provide the majority of the project’s debt finance, working alongside Bpifrance Assurance Export, to help support the building of the power plant.
The government will become the largest shareholder, alongside private investors EDF, Centrica, La Caisse and Amber Infrastructure.
The investment deal builds on lessons learnt from the construction of Hinkley Point C to provide a funding model that spreads the £38bln cost of constructing Sizewell C between consumers, taxpayers and private investors.
This will ensure the impact on consumer bills is limited to an average of around £1 per month, says the government, over the duration of Sizewell C’s construction.
Recently, the government also selected Rolls-Royce SMR as the preferred bidder to build the first small modular reactors in the country.
Meanwhile, a team of robotics specialists report a world first in fitting and operating a robotic arm inside an active nuclear glovebox at Sellafield. The AtkinsRéalis Remote Glovebox Operations (ARGO) system has been inserted into an existing glovebox and controlled remotely and safely by operators.
A key challenge at Sellafield is how to safely clean up and dispose of hundreds of redundant nuclear gloveboxes built up over decades.
The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) group has also launched a 'robotics partnership' to manage nuclear waste. The project, Auto-SAS, will be delivered jointly by AtkinsRéalis and Createc, working in partnership as ARCTEC to combine their joint experience of developing automated systems and robotics in nuclear.
They will take learning from the solutions they developed in an earlier innovation competition to develop a system that will be deployed on the NRS Oldbury, former nuclear site.
The ambition is to transfer learning to support future deployments at other sites like Sellafield.
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