OAKVILLE, ON – October 21, 2020 – Terrestrial Energy welcomes to its Advisory Board Lord Duncan of Springbank, a Life Peer in the United Kingdom’s House of Lords. Dr. Ian Duncan was recently Government Minister for Climate Change within the Department of Business Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS). Lord Duncan will provide guidance to the Company as it seeks to deepen its commercial engagements in the United Kingdom and align the company’s Generation IV IMSR advanced reactor development with UK industrial and climate change policy. As a member of the Company’s Advisory Board, Lord Duncan joins former Prime Minister of Canada, Stephen Harper, and former US Secretary of Energy, Dr. Ernest Moniz.
This development follows the UK’s recent £200 million “Nuclear Sector Deal,” which set out its government’s policy goals to secure a diverse national energy mix, drive down the costs of nuclear energy, and deliver cheaper energy bills for customers. The Nuclear Sector Deal is focusing on innovation to develop world-leading nuclear technologies such as Generation IV advanced modular reactors, together with building skills the United Kingdom seeks to maintain its position as one of the world’s leading nations in nuclear technology.
Early this year, the UK’s Nuclear Research Advisory Board Report set out a framework for the activities required to meet the 2050 net-zero target enshrined in national legislation. Its policy recommendations include a commitment of £400 million for research and development in an extended Nuclear Innovation Programme, and £600 million for the deployment of advanced modular reactors in the United Kingdom. These recommendations align with Terrestrial Energy’s objectives to deploy UK IMSR power plants.
“In the absence of nuclear innovation, and its successful deployment, the United Kingdom will have lost virtually all of its nuclear generating capacity by the end of this decade, threatening to close a chapter that opened in 1956 with the world’s first civilian nuclear power plant,” said Simon Irish, CEO of Terrestrial Energy. “Lord Duncan brings deep understanding of the UK energy policy at a time when its government urgently seeks to replace nuclear energy capacity to maintain a diverse energy mix, a leading capability in nuclear technology, and a credible pathway to deep decarbonization by 2050.”
“IMSR technology is a world leading Generation IV technology and has the potential to play an important role in the UK’s future energy mix driven by the cost advantages of its Generation IV reactor innovation,” said Lord Duncan. “UK policymakers are noting the progress of such technologies in Canada and the United States. I am looking forward to assisting Terrestrial Energy with its plans in the United Kingdom, and with the timely realization of the IMSR’s considerable potential.”
Lord Duncan began his career in energy at BP and is a Conservative Life Peer in the UK’s House of Lords. In addition to serving as Minister for Climate Change, he was Minister for Scotland and Wales, and Minister for the Northern Ireland Office. Lord Duncan is an advisor to the University of St. Andrews; a board member of the Schwarzenegger Institute at the University of Southern California, established by former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger; and is Chair of the National Forest. As a former Member of the European Parliament, Lord Duncan has also been active in European energy and climate policy.
About Terrestrial Energy
Terrestrial Energy is a developer of Generation IV advanced nuclear power plants that use the company’s proprietary Integral Molten Salt Reactor (IMSR) technology. IMSR technology represents true innovation in cost reduction, versatility, and functionality of nuclear power plants. It can provide safe, clean, reliable, and cost-competitive energy for generating on-grid electric power and heat for industrial processes, such as hydrogen production, synthetic fuel production, natural resource extraction, and desalination. With IMSR technology, nuclear energy has many more industrial uses beyond on-grid electric power generation. IMSR technology offers an important pathway to deep decarbonization by displacing fossil fuel combustion across a broad industrial front. Using an innovative design based on proven and demonstrated molten salt reactor technology, the first IMSR power plants are expected to be in commercial operation by the late 2020s.
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