UK delays ‘Great British Nuclear’ launch

The U.K. government has delayed the official launch of a major arms-length body intended to support the country’s nuclear industry.

Energy Secretary Grant Shapps had been due to give a heavily-trailed speech at London’s Science Museum on Thursday, setting out his plans for Great British Nuclear and its role helping the U.K. hit its net zero goals.

But in an email to attendees, seen by POLITICO, the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) confirmed the event was being rescheduled “due to unforeseen circumstances.”

Shapps was expected to use his speech to outline the next phase of a planned competition for manufacturing firms — including Rolls Royce and GE Hitachi — vying to develop small modular reactors (SMRs). The government hopes the new technology will provide cheaper, more flexible atomic power to help the U.K. hit its target of 24 gigawatts of nuclear generation by 2050.

The reasons for the cancellation were not immediately clear.

One government official, granted anonymity to discuss internal scheduling decisions, said the speech had to be moved to make way for “unforeseen government business” on Thursday — but did not specify what.

A second official, granted anonymity to speak about the situation, said shortly before the postponement that the event had been subject to eleventh hour discussions between Shapps’ department and the Treasury.

In the email to attendees, DESNZ said: "We appreciate your continued interest in the department and our ambition for future nuclear policy and we will be in touch once we have further details regarding the rescheduled event.

"Please accept our sincere apologies for any inconvenience caused."

An energy industry figure, granted anonymity to speak frankly, said: “We thought it was going ahead tomorrow. Now it’s not. Whether it’s been postponed for a particular reason not related to policy stuff, we don’t know. We hope it still goes ahead at some point.”