Atom is prematurely split in the ‘golden age’ transatlantic partnership | Nils Pratley
It had all been so harmonious two months ago,“Together with the US, we’re building a golden age of nuclear that puts both countries at the forefront of global innovation and investment,” purred the prime minister about the new “landmark” UK-US nuclear partnership,Now there’s an atomic split over the first significant decision,The UK has allocated Wylfa on the island of Anglesey, or Ynys Môn, to host three small modular reactors (SMRs) to be built by the British developer Rolls-Royce SMR,The US ambassador, Warren Stephens, says his country is “extremely disappointed”: he wanted Westinghouse, a US company, to get the gig for a large-scale reactor.
This quarrel is easy to adjudicate.The US ambassador is living in dreamland if he seriously thought the UK wouldn’t show home bias at Wylfa.This is the coveted site for new nuclear power in the UK because the land is owned by the government, which ought to make the planning process easier and quicker, and the site hosted a Magnox reactor until 2015, so the locals are used to nuclear plants.Since Rolls-Royce’s kit is the best national hope of reviving the UK’s industry with homegrown technology, of course there was going to be preferential treatment.None of which is to say the SMR experiment will definitely succeed in the sense of demonstrating cheapness (a relative measure in nuclear-land) versus mega-plants, such as Hinkley Point C, Sizewell C or the Westinghouse design.
Rolls-Royce oozes confidence about the cost-saving advantages of prefabrication in factories, but these have yet to be demonstrated on the ground.The point, though, is that the only way to find out is to get on and build.Rolls-Royce SMR’s only other order currently is from the Czech Republic for six units.Indeed, the criticism from some quarters is that the UK government has been too timid in ordering only three.If the batch-production is supposed to be the gamechanger on costs, goes the argument, then commit to a decent-sized batch at the outset.
The choice of Wylfa may help on that score in time, though.The site is reckoned to be big enough to hold an additional five SMR units eventually, on the top of the first three.Since each SMR is 470 megawatts, a full build-out would equate to more megawatts in total than the 3,200 from each of Hinkley and Sizewell.The sop to the US is that Westinghouse gets to compete for future large-scale reactor projects in the UK.It would probably have been a good idea to tell the ambassador in advance before he blew a fuse.
Reserving Wylfa for Rolls-Royce SMRs was the only sensible decision here.Hopes that SMR technology will become a major export-earner for the UK eventually are best treated with extreme caution at this stage.The first electricity from Wylfa won’t be generated until the mid-2030s, and the demonstration of falling costs with each additional unit can only come after that.There is a long way to go.But a good way to maximise your chance of success is to give the top site to your pet project.
The US would have done exactly the same.
It had to be Shane Warne: the Ashes Elvis had an aura that eclipsed all others | Barney Ronay
Raise the Playboy pants like a pirate flag. Twirl the big brimmer in celebration. It was always going to be Shane, really, wasn’t it.We did of course have a countdown first, because people love countdowns, because cricket is basically one unceasing countdown, an endless pencil stub ticking off names and numbers. There were 99 members of the supporting cast to be ushered to their spots, the non-Shanes of history, meat in the Ashes room
NFL midseason-ish awards: Darnold’s rise to MVP and a surprising Browns rookie
With the season more than halfway done, we look at the outstanding figures from the 2025 campaign so farSam Darnold, QB, Seahawks. With apologies to Jonathan Taylor, we know how this story goes. MVP doesn’t stand for Most Valuable Player anymore. It stands for Most Valuable Quarterback on a 12-win team with a nice storyline. That gives us three frontrunners: Matthew Stafford, Drake Maye and Darnold
Outsiders sense Chess World Cup glory after host of big names make early exits
An early cull of the favourites at the Chess World Cup in Goa has resulted in 15 of the top 20 seeds heading for home early. It has also created a lopsided pairing situation where almost all the remaining favourites are concentrated in one half of the draw.The two surviving top seeds, India’s world No 5 Arjun Erigaisi and China’s No 10-ranked Wei Yi, could meet in the quarter-finals, while the headline pairing in Friday afternoon’s fifth round is Levon Aronian, the US star who has already won the World Cup twice, against Erigaisi.Several of the top 20 were eliminated in the first three rounds of the $2m (£1.5m) tournament, among them India’s 19-year-old world champion Gukesh Dommaraju, the double world title finalist Ian Nepomniachtchi, and the controversial US star Hans Niemann
Stand aside Australia, New Zealand are now England’s No 1 sporting rival | Emma John
Do we talk about England and Australia’s sporting rivalry too much? In the past couple of weeks, we haven’t had much choice. The rugby league Kangaroos have been hopping about between London, Liverpool and Leeds, while the Wallabies grazed on the Twickenham turf. In F1, Bristol-born Lando Norris has been getting booed on track during his relentless comeback against his Melburnian McLaren teammate, Oscar Piastri. And that personal battle has reached its climax just in time for the much-hyped men’s Ashes – with England kicking off their tour in Perth to already hysterical headlines.This weekend brings a pause in hostilities
Eli Katoa’s playing future uncertain as recovery from head impacts, seizures and brain surgery continues
Melbourne Storm backrower and Tonga star Eli Katoa faces the prospect of further weeks in hospital and possibly time in a rehabilitation centre as he begins his slow recovery from brain surgery after he suffered three head knocks against New Zealand 12 days ago.The 25-year-old remains in hospital in Auckland, and alarming information provided by his club on Friday indicates there is no guarantee one of the game’s best forwards will play again.Katoa appeared to suffer a concussion in the warmup in the Pacific Championships clash two weeks ago when his head collided with Tonga teammate Lehi Hopoate.But he was allowed to play, and received two more head impacts during the game, before suffering seizures on the sideline and needing emergency surgery to release bleeding on the brain.The Storm chief executive, Justin Rodski, said Katoa’s recovery was only beginning
Donald Trump’s granddaughter Kai in last after 83 in shaky LPGA debut
Kai Trump, the US president’s granddaughter and the eldest child of Donald Trump Jr, opened her LPGA career with a 13-over-par 83 on Thursday at The Annika, a debut round that left her at the bottom of the leaderboard and underscored the chasm between elite junior golf and a field stacked with the sport’s top professionals.The 18-year-old amateur, playing on a much-discussed sponsor’s exemption, began her round on the back nine alongside former major champion Hinako Shibuno and Germany’s Olivia Cowan. She received warm applause when her name was announced on the par-4 10th tee and again after she drove it safely into the fairway, one of the few calm moments in a jittery start.Trump confessed afterward she was more nervous than when she spoke at the Republican National Convention last year and it showed. She bogeyed her opening four holes, a run of tentative strokes that left her scrambling before she had taken a fifth swing from a fairway
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