On the question of what the UK can contribute, the noble Lord is absolutely right that Rolls Royce is already involved here in reactor design and manufacture. That company is sponsoring a student in the Dalton Research Institute in Manchester, looking at a small modular reactor based on a thorium fuel cycle; it is looking at different reactor designs, including molten salts. So it is here. One example of how a small amount of money can have a big effect is the $10 million grant given by the Department of Energy in America to a number of universities, plus the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, to look at molten salt-cooled pebble-bed reactors. That funding programme enabled them to leverage into the Chinese nuclear reactor research programme, such that the Chinese changed direction and are now collaborating in work on a molten salt-cooled pebble-bed reactor using thorium. I use that as an illustration that you do not have to build everything yourself and spend hundreds of millions; you can have a highly leveraged impact if you are smart about your R&D choices and build on our existing strengths.
One great thing about the all-party parliamentary group has been exposure to an increasing number of scientists in the UK who are working on thorium and molten salts—and in combination. It is true that Sellafield and the National Nuclear Laboratory, by being commercial, have to go out and seek funding from the existing incumbents in the market. Therefore, they do not have the luxury of being able to horizon scan or think slightly more outside the box, because they are continually looking for funding. If more funding were provided by government and we had a genuine R&D for nuclear fusion strategy, the NNL would be an absolute asset in this search for the most sustainable forms of nuclear power. They are the ones working with Thor Energy, fabricating solid fuel thorium rods today that are being tested in the Halden reactor. So there is plenty to be very proud of and to build on in the UK.
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