Member

I noted the intervention of the noble Lord, Lord Hamilton, on SMRs. In particular, he talked about community support. I will say two things. First, in surveys that we are doing, there has been growing public acceptance of the value of nuclear energy. This has clearly increased since Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and the issue of energy supply. None the less, we have a more positive picture of public support. Secondly, we are working on a new siting policy, which will bring greater flexibilities to where nuclear power stations can be sited in the future. I take the noble Lord’s point about the potential of small modular reactors.