Rolls-Royce chosen to build UK's first fleet of small modular reactors

Rolls-Royce won a competition yesterday to be the first company to try to build small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs) in the UK, as part of the government's effort to push Britain to the frontier of nuclear technology.

- Jasper Jolly

Great British Energy - Nuclear, the public power company driving the effort, said yesterday that Rolls-Royce SMR was the preferred bidder, after a drawn-out competition that pitted the FTSE 100 manufacturer against two US-owned companies.

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.

The nuclear investments will form a key part of the spending review due to be announced by the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, today.

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

The crucial difference between large plants such as Sizewell C and the small 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.