Rolls-Royce backed by Government to build mini nuclear reactors

Midlands-based Rolls-Royce will move ahead with a multibillion-pound plan to construct a new generation of Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) after securing more than £450 million from government and investors.

Rolls-Royce Group, BNF Resources UK Limited and Exelon Generation Limited will invest £195 million over three years.

The funding will enable the business to secure grant funding of £210 million from UK Research and Innovation funding, first announced by the UK Prime Minister in ‘The Ten Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution’.

This announcement is another step towards the delivery of government’s net zero strategy and its 10-point plan.

The business, which has been a nuclear reactor designer since the 1950s, will now begin the process of identifying sites that will manufacture the modules that enable on-site assembly of the power plants.

Discussions will also continue with the UK Government on identifying the delivery models that will enable long-term investment in this vital, net-zero enabling technology.

Rolls-Royce SMR is engaging with export customers across many continents who need this technology to meet their own net zero commitments.

Warren East, Rolls-Royce CEO said:

The SMR programme is one of the ways that Rolls-Royce is meeting the need to ensure the UK continues to develop innovative ways to tackle the global threat of climate change.

With the Rolls-Royce SMR technology, we have developed a clean energy solution that can deliver cost-competitive and scalable net zero power for multiple applications from grid and industrial electricity production to hydrogen and synthetic fuel manufacturing.

The business could create up to 40,000 jobs, through UK deployment and export enabled growth. As a major shareholder in Rolls-Royce SMR, we will continue to support its path to successful deployment.

Business and Energy Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said:

This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for the UK to deploy more low carbon energy than ever before and ensure greater energy independence. Small Modular Reactors offer exciting opportunities to cut costs and build more quickly, ensuring we can bring clean electricity to people’s homes and cut our already-dwindling use of volatile fossil fuels even further.

In working with Rolls-Royce, we are proud to back the largest engineering collaboration the UK has ever seen – uniting some of the most respected and innovating organisations on the planet.

Not only can we maximise British content, create new intellectual property and reinvigorate supply chains, but also position our country as a global leader in innovative nuclear technologies we can potentially export elsewhere.

Rolls-Royce SMR is using proven nuclear technology, coupled with a unique factory-made module manufacturing and on-site assembly system, to harness decades of British engineering, design and manufacturing knowhow.

It brings together the best of UK industry to ensure a decarbonisation solution that will be available to the UK grid in the early 2030s.

The potential for this to be a leading global export for the UK is unprecedented.

Nine-tenths of an individual Rolls-Royce SMR power plant will be built or assembled in factory conditions and around 80% could be delivered by a UK supply chain – a unique offering in energy infrastructure in the UK.

The size of two football pitches, a single power station will occupy around one-tenth of the size of a conventional nuclear generation site and power approximately one million homes.

It can support both on-grid electricity and a range of off-grid clean energy solutions, enabling the decarbonisation of industrial processes and the production of clean fuels, such as sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) and green hydrogen, to support the energy transition in the wider heat and transportation sectors.

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