UK-based global major industrial technology group Rolls-Royce stated on Wednesday that it expected to create 6 000 jobs in the midlands and north of England within five years, if the British government clearly committed itself to enabling the construction of 16 small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs) over the next 20 years. Note that neither the UK government, nor any government agency, would be the customer for these SMRs, although the government is helping fund their development in a public-private partnership. Rolls-Royce did not specify what it meant by “enabling” the manufacture of the SMRs.

Rolls-Royce is leading a consortium which includes five other companies (Assystem, Atkins, BAM Nuttall, Jacobs and Laing O’Rourke), an industrial and professional research and development (R&D) association (TWI – original full name: The Welding Institute), one jointly public and private sector R&D agency (the Nuclear Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre) and one government R&D agency (the National Nuclear Laboratory). The consortium is called UKSMR.

“We have developed a manufacturing and assembly process that will make reliable, low carbon nuclear power affordable, deliverable and investable,” assured UKSMR interim CEO Tom Samson. “By creating a factory-built power station that rolls off the assembly line we have radically reduced many construction risks associated with new nuclear power stations; and by using proven nuclear technology alongside standardised and simplified components, we make it much more cheaply.”

The UKSMR design has a generating capacity of 440 MW, which would be enough electricity to power a city with 450 000 homes (not people). This power would be low carbon and each UKSMR would have an operating life of 60 years. The UKSMR is a pressurised water reactor (PWR), a proven and well-established technology used both in large scale ‘conventional’ nuclear power plants and on the small scale to power nuclear submarines (a typical nuclear submarine reactor reportedly has an output of 190 MW). Rolls-Royce was and is responsible for all British nuclear submarine reactors. 

Rolls-Royce stated that the first UKSMR would be operational within ten years of being ordered. The planned industrial production rate would be two SMRs a year, with 80% of the components being manufactured in the currently economically-disadvantaged English midlands and north. The proposed building programme could create another 34 000 jobs by 2035/36, most of them skilled. The deployment of a ‘fleet’ of SMRs would also support the UK’s policy of greatly reducing the country’s carbon emissions. The SMRs could also be used to produce hydrogen and synthetic aviation fuels, which in turn would cut the carbon emissions of both air and terrestrial transport. (By law, the UK must achieve net zero carbon emissions, relative to 1990 levels, by 2050.)

“The UKSMR consortium presents the UK with a domestic nuclear energy solution for the first time in a generation, with a product that is engineered, designed and manufactured in the UK,” he pointed out. “This creates a unique opportunity to revitalise the UK’s industrial base and paves the way for the future commercialisation of advanced reactor solutions, including fusion technology.” The proposed fleet of UKSMRs would be built at existing nuclear sites. The very recent signing of two memorandums of understanding between Rolls-Royce and two international groups (Exelon of the US and CEZ of the Czech Republic) confirmed there was international interest in the design. The export potential for the UKSMR could reach £250-billion by 2050.