Paul Dorfman - Times letter SMRs
Posted: 18th September 2025
Dr Paul Dorfman Letter: Further to your report “Deal with US to
fast-track mini nuclear reactors” (Sep 15; letter, Sep 16), small modular
reactors (SMRs) are defined by the International Atomic Energy Agency as
reactors that generate up to 300MW power. At 470MW, the Rolls-Royce design
is not an SMR: it is larger than the UK Magnox reactor, more than half the
size of the 900MW reactors that make up the bulk of the French nuclear
fleet, and about a third the size of the very large EPR reactor design at
Hinkley Point C. This matters because the Rolls-Royce design will need big
sites, standard nuclear safety measures, exclusion zones, core catchers,
aircraft crash protection and security. All this is important because in
calling its design an SMR, or small, Rolls-Royce appears to me to have been
economical with the truth — and all that implies for its other claims,
especially about time and cost. As for the nuclear waste problem, the
former chair of the US government Nuclear Regulatory Commission reports
that SMRs would produce more reactive waste per kWh — the key parameter
— than large reactors.
Times 17th Sept 2025
https://www.thetimes.com/comment/letters-to-editor/article/times-letters-ethics-of-danny-krugers-defection-to-reform-uk-3rbg90m3b