Factory-built nuclear reactors could power electric cars in UK, says Policy Exchange
London — Demand for low-carbon electricity to power a future wave of electric vehicles could be satisfied by small, factory-built nuclear reactors. As Britain’s old coal and nuclear stations shut from 2025, the nation faces a tough challenge in keeping a future fleet of electric cars powered and meeting the nation’s clean energy goals when renewable sources like wind and solar aren’t available. "In the next decades, we are going to need previously unthinkable levels of new low-carbon electricity capacity for charging electric vehicles and to replace coal and gas," said Matt Rooney, the author of a report on small reactors for the Policy Exchange research group. "There is no other low-carbon energy which can match nuclear power for scale and reliability." The smaller reactors can produce up to 300MW, or about a fifth of the capacity of one of the two units being built at Electricite de France’s (EDF’s) Hinkley Point C, the UK’s first new nuclear plant since 1995. The reactors are typ...
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