Rolls-Royce SMR has been selected as the preferred bidder to partner with Great British Energy - Nuclear to develop small modular reactors, subject to final government approvals and contract signature – marking a new golden age of nuclear in the UK. 

The announcement came as part of a broader push for nuclear power by the government, as it promised to invest £14.2bn to build the large Sizewell C power station in Suffolk.

As part of the government’s modern Industrial Strategy to revive Britain’s industrial heartlands, the government is pledging more than £2.5bn for the overall small modular reactor programme in this Spending Review period – with this project potentially supporting up to 3,000 new skilled jobs and powering the equivalent of about three million homes with clean, secure home-grown energy.

Boosting energy security

The biggest nuclear rollout for a generation will support the clean power mission – boosting energy security and protecting families’ finances. Great British Energy-Nuclear is aiming to sign contracts with Rolls-Royce SMR later this year and will form a development company. 

Sizewell C will produce 3.2GW of power, enough to power about 6m homes. By contrast, Rolls-Royce’s small modular reactors (SMRs) will provide about 470MW each. A separate government release said SMRs would collectively generate up to 1.5GW of electricity, suggesting that Rolls-Royce will be granted permission to build at least three SMRs.

The crucial difference between large plants like Sizewell C and the mini nuclear sites is that SMRs will mostly be built to a single design on a factory line, rather than individually on-site. Those factory-built 'modules' will then be fitted together at the site, in an effort to make the construction of nuclear plants cheaper, less complex and less prone to the hugely costly delays that have plagued the Hinkley Point C plant.

The SMR approach is unproven, with no sites yet fully operational anywhere in the world. However, Rolls-Royce has argued that the pressurised water reactor technology it has chosen is well understood, and will allow it to start generating power by 2032 at the earliest. Data centres for tech companies are a key target customer.

Great British Energy - Nuclear will also aim to allocate a site later this year and connect projects to the grid in the mid-2030s. Once small modular reactors and Sizewell C come online in the 2030s, combined with the new station at Hinkley Point C, this will deliver more nuclear to the grid than over the previous half century.

‘SMRs’ are smaller and quicker to build than traditional nuclear plants, with costs likely to come down as units are rolled out. The outcome of this competition is the first step towards reducing costs and unlocking private finance, enabling the UK to realise its long-term ambition of delivering one of Europe’s first small modular reactor fleets. 

Shake up planning rules

It comes after the government announced plans to shake up the planning rules to make it easier to build nuclear, including small modular reactors across the country.

Energy secretary Ed Miliband said: "We are ending the no-nuclear status quo as part of our Plan for Change and are entering a golden age of nuclear with the biggest building programme in a generation. 

"Great British Energy - Nuclear has run a rigorous competition and will now work with the preferred bidder Rolls-Royce SMR to build the country’s first ever small modular reactors – creating thousands of jobs and growing our regional economies while strengthening our energy security."

The government did not reveal the locations of the first UK SMRs, which some in the industry had hoped for to speed the process along. According to The Guardian, they are likely to be sited beside retired nuclear power stations such as Oldbury in Gloucestershire and Wylfa in north Wales.

Derby-based Rolls-Royce beat competition from the US companies Holtec and GE Hitachi, while the Canadian-owned Westinghouse dropped out of the competition earlier.