The UK government has announced £102 million in funding for nuclear and hydrogen energy innovation. 

The funding is in direct correlation to the war in Ukraine which has deeply impacted the oil and gas resources of much of Europe. 

Funding includes £77 million to bolster nuclear fuel production and support the development of the next generation of advanced nuclear reactions, along with £25 million for technologies that can produce hydrogen from sustainable biomass and waste, while removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. 

Nuclear 

With funding up to £60 million, the government is planning on kick starting the next phase of research into the high temperature gas reactor (HTGR), a time of advanced modular reactor (AMR) which could be running by the early 2030s. 

From the Advanced modular reaction R&D programme, the funding aims to get a demonstration project of the engineering design up and running by the end of the decade.

HTGRs are typically smaller than conventional nuclear power stations, more flexible, and could be built at a fraction of a cost.

 It is hoped that as well as safely creating electricity to power homes, HTGRs will bolster the UK’s energy sovereignty and security, by reducing reliance on expensive fossil fuels, as well as generate by-products such as low-carbon hydrogen. 

 By generating temperatures of up to 950 degrees, HTGRs provide a source of clean, high temperature heat that could help decarbonise industrial processes in the UK.

A further £4 million of funding for the AMR Knowledge Capture Project will support the HTGR, as a complementary project to the AMR Research, Development and Demonstration programme.

The project seeks to facilitate knowledge capture and sharing to reduce the time, risk, and cost of the programme delivery.

Also in the announcement is up to £13 million for nuclear fuel fabricators Westinghouse in Preston, which has strategic importance to producing fuel for the current UK advanced gas cooled reactor fleet. 

The funding will mean the UK has the option of being less reliant on imports from abroad and helps the company develop the capability to convert both reprocessed uranium and freshly mined uranium to make new fuel, while safeguarding hundreds of highly skilled jobs. 

UK Ministers are also hopeful the funding will deliver export opportunities for the sector and position the UK as a key international supplier of nuclear fue and fuel cycle services. 

The announcement also comes after ministers recently announced the further revitalisation of the UK nuclear industry by confirming their backing of a nuclear project in over 30 years, with a £700 million stake in Seizewell C in Suffolk. 

The power station will produce enough electricity to power the equivalent of 6 million homes for over 50 years. 

Energy and Climate Minister Graham Stuart said: “This funding package will strengthen our energy security, by ensuring we have a safe and secure supply of domestic nuclear fuel services – while also creating more UK jobs and export opportunities.”

Hydrogen

Set to become a super-fuel of the future, the government pledges that accelerating the use of hydrogen will be key to the UK’s greener energy future, alongside the government’s work to deploy renewables and nuclear energy to strengthen the UK’s energy security.

To support this, the government has committed £25 million to accelerate the deployment of hydrogen from bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) – a unique ‘negative emission’ technology that can permanently remove CO2 from the atmosphere. 

Biomass absorbs CO2 during growth which is then captured and permanently stored during the hydrogen generation process.

Hydrogen BECCS technologies will have a key role to play on the UK’s path to net zero emissions, providing hydrogen as a clean fuel for hard-to-decarbonise sectors such as transport and heavy industry.

Energy Minister Lord Callanan said: “With its potential to go one step further than net zero, and be carbon negative – removing greenhouse gas emissions from the atmosphere – this hydrogen technology will be crucial to achieving our climate goals.”

The funding will go directly towards progressing BECCS projects from the design stage to demonstration, supporting the technology to eventually become integrated as part of our everyday energy system.

Published in conjunction with the funding announcement, the UK Hydrogen Strategy was updated, summarising the government’s action to advance the hydrogen economy since this summer. 

Actions include: funding 9 projects through the Industrial hydrogen Accelerator competition, laundering the Electrolytic Hydrogen Allocation Round, announcing the shortlisted CCUS-enabled hydrogen projects, and publishing their consultation on hydrogen transport and storage infrastructure. 

The Scottish Government also has plans for hydrogen – they have recently partially funded a Liquid Organic Hydrogen Carrier for transport from Scotland to Rotterdam as part of their Hydrogen Policy Statement. 

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Further, the UK government announced proposals to raise the efficiency standards for new gas boilers, potentially saving household energy bills, and is estimated to take save 21 million tonnes of CO2 by 2050. 

In a further move towards making household heating more efficient, the government is also consulting on a proposal for all new domestic-scale gas boilers sold from 2026 to be capable of being powered by hydrogen, to prepare for any potential future transition to the use of low-carbon hydrogen for heating.

“Mandating hydrogen-ready boilers is an important step towards decarbonising homes. The government are absolutely right to support this no-regrets option,” Mike Foster, Chief Executive of Energy and Utilities Alliance and The Heating and Hotwater Industry Council, said.

“So this means 1.7 million homes a year will be ready for net zero at no extra cost to the consumer, helping us hit our 2050 target.”

Jane Toogood, UK Hydrogen Champion, found the government announcement to be in the right direction: “To maintain market confidence and investment, industry needs the Government to keep up the momentum, particularly on decisions to create demand for hydrogen and progress the hydrogen business models.”

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