Rolls-Royce secures £599m for UK's first small nuclear reactors
Rolls-Royce has secured up to £599 million from Britain’s national wealth fund as it accelerates efforts to develop the UK’s first small modular nuclear reactors.
The funding will support Rolls-Royce’s design work on small modular reactors (SMRs) planned for Wylfa on the island of Anglesey, known in Welsh as Ynys Môn, News.Az reports, citing the Guardian.
SMR technology is designed to enable nuclear power stations to be manufactured in factories, with the goal of reducing costs and speeding up deployment compared to traditional nuclear plants.
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Wylfa previously generated nuclear power from 1971 until 2015, when its final reactor was shut down. Later, Japanese conglomerate Hitachi attempted to develop a new nuclear facility at the site, but abandoned the project in 2020 after failing to secure an agreement on government funding.
In 2024, the site was purchased from Hitachi by the state-owned Great British Energy–Nuclear (GBE-N), marking a renewed push to redevelop the location for future nuclear projects.
The chancellor, Rachel Reeves, said the investment would help “strengthen our energy security, create skilled jobs and help to build a new generation of homegrown nuclear technology that will power our economy for decades to come”.
The national wealth fund said its funding is expected to help create about 1,000 jobs at the company.
Labour has embraced nuclear energy in the hope it can generate electricity without carbon dioxide emissions, while also offering the chance for a large new export industry in SMRs.
The government announced on Monday that Rolls-Royce SMR and GBE-N signed a contract that allows work to start immediately on SMRs.
It will be welcome news for Rolls-Royce, the FTSE 100 maker of jet engines that the government chose as its preferred developer last year.
The company owns the majority of Rolls-Royce SMR, alongside Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund, France’s BNF Resources and the Czech utility CEZ.
Rolls-Royce SMR has more than 1,000 employees working to produce technology that will also be installed at Temelín in the Czech Republic.
By Nijat Babayev
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