This live dashboard puts this number in perspective - https://grid.iamkate.com/

Roughly: the demand is about 33-35GW. That’s projected to become 50GW by 2050 as transportation and home heating become electrified. So that’s the puck we’re skating towards.

Nuclear supplies a constant 10% of the demand today (more, if you count imports from France). The goal is to power 20% of the 50GW demand through nuclear. If it’s cheap, even more. Each of these Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) generates 470MW, so we’d need about 20 of them.

The plan is to set up a factory near Sheffield and produce the reactor parts like IKEA, so they can be assembled on site. The hope is that manufacturing and assembling the same product repeatedly makes people more efficient. That’s the main problem with nuclear - over budget and delays - that SMRs aim to fix.

I’m glad the UK is taking electrification seriously, and is investing in domestic industry that will hopefully export reactors if it’s successful. Some folks might look at the estimated date of completion (2035) and get discouraged, but I wouldn’t. The best time to plant this tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.

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jacobgorm 12 hours ago | parent | next [-]

“like IKEA” sounds misleading at best.

	▲	testdelacc1 9 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Misleading how? That’s precisely how SMRs differ from traditional plants - they’re manufactured in a factory instead of being constructed on-site. That’s exactly like the difference between IKEA and constructing furniture from scratch using blocks of wood.

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blitzar 11 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

> Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) generates 470MW, so we’d need about 20 of them

A more realistic target, one that would make this all more viable, would be 50MW and make 200 of them.

	▲	rsynnott 11 hours ago \| parent [-]
		That was the SMR dream, but it largely hasn't worked out, for various reasons. Most 'SMR' designs have grown to suspiciously close to er, normal nuclear reactors.