Event Follows Recent Announcement on AP300 SMR New Build Plan
Lancashire, ENGLAND, Feb. 9, 2024 – Westinghouse Electric Company today announced that representatives for more than 130 vendors attended its U.K. Supplier Symposium this week. The two-day event in Lancashire provided a forum to engage with current and potential suppliers for Westinghouse’s numerous potential nuclear new build projects in the United Kingdom.
Sean Jones, a Westinghouse Energy Systems senior director, spoke this week at the U.K. Supplier Symposium.
The recent publication of the Civil Nuclear Roadmap has confirmed the U.K.’s ambition to deliver 24GW of new nuclear capacity by 2050 and establish a secure and independent nuclear fuel supply chain. Westinghouse is preparing to meet this vision with its proven, globally deployed gigawatt-scale AP1000® reactor and its complementary AP300TM Small Modular Reactor (SMR), as well as in-country fuel and fuel services capability and excellence.
The AP300 SMR continues to advance through the technology selection process with Great British Nuclear (GBN). Westinghouse also recently signed an agreement with Community Nuclear Power Ltd to deploy four AP300 SMRs in North Teesside, advancing the U.K.’s first privately financed SMR project. Both are significant steps in making this new energy sector a reality with commercial operation expected by the early 2030s.
“Westinghouse sees tremendous opportunity for our local supplier partners in the U.K. as we advance these vital projects,” said Rita Baranwal, Senior Vice President for Energy Systems, Westinghouse. “We have a long history working side-by-side with the British nuclear industry and that legacy will continue for decades to come. With the Roadmap also committing to a new Gigawatt project and U.K. fuel and fuel services capability, we felt that now was the perfect moment to both help the supply chain understand the breadth and scale of opportunity and our requirements to ensure delivery with sustainable social value.”
Westinghouse organized the supplier event with support from the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre and opening remarks were provided by the Nuclear Industry Association, Lancahires County Council and the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero.
In May 2023, Westinghouse launched the AP300 small modular reactor, the only SMR based on an advanced, large Generation III+ reactor already in operation globally, the proven AP1000® technology. Unlike every other SMR under development with first-of-a-kind technologies and risks, Westinghouse’s AP300 SMR utilizes the AP1000 engineering, components, and supply chain, enabling streamlined licensing and leveraging available technical skills. Together, these factors provide confidence that the first operating unit will be available in the early 2030s. The advantageous economics of the AP300 SMR are based on robust analysis and existing project costs from AP1000 reactors already in operation or development on three continents. Besides the U.K., the AP300 SMR is also under consideration by customers in Europe and North America.
The AP1000 reactor is the only operating Generation III+ reactor with fully passive safety systems, modular construction design and has the smallest footprint per MWe on the market. One AP1000 reactor is operational with another near completion the Vogtle site in Georgia, while four AP1000 units are currently setting operational performance records in China with four additional reactors under construction, and two more planned. Nine units have been announced for Ukraine, and the technology is under consideration at multiple other sites in Central and Eastern Europe, the United Kingdom, and in the United States.
