“Issues like nuclear cooperation are issues where we can work together with the U.S.,” Miliband told POLITICO last month. “We might be doing it with a different perspective — but we can work together.”
Trump last weekend announced a series of executive orders aimed at firing up U.S. nuclear power, at the same time tech giants like Google and Microsoft lobby on both sides of the Atlantic for government-backed SMRs to help run their energy-scoffing data centers.
One litmus test of the Treasury’s approach will be how many firms are awarded an SMR contract, amid fears officials will ultimately plump for a single winner. “I think everybody on the inside knows that it should be two SMR winners. And that would include Lord Hunt, it would include the department, [and] probably the Treasury when they’re being honest,” said the second energy figure quoted above.
But ultimately, said the same person, the Treasury has no choice but to act.
“It’s a coincidence of two factors — Sizewell C and SMRs — and one event: the spending review,” they said. In a few weeks’ time, the government lays out its spending plans for the next three years. Leave big nuclear decisions any longer, the same person argued, and the Treasury’s financial planning will be wrecked.
”You have to make a decision and clarify Sizewell C. The investment is so big that [if they hold off any longer] the Treasury’s numbers won’t make sense,” they argued.
“There is an urgency [inside the Treasury] to be building new nuclear power, and also an urgency to be building all different kinds of power for energy security supply,” said one union figure who had discussed future nuclear investment with ministers.
The spending review may be the moment urgency replaces inertia. “I think there has to be big announcements to move that forward,” the union figure said.