Why Rolls-Royce SMR?


Rolls-Royce SMR’s approach to nuclear technology and development will deliver significant benefits.

Rolls-Royce SMR

Rolls-Royce SMR offers a radically different approach to delivering nuclear power, we have drastically reduced the amount of construction activities and transformed the delivery environment, from a large complex infrastructure programme into a factory built commoditised product.

Our design has evolved in response to a definitive set of market driven outcomes, this is not technology for technology's sake, but innovation, to create a transformational clean energy solution that will deliver clean affordable energy for all.

Deliverable

Rolls Royce SMR will utilise the breadth of the UK supply chain, which is able to contribute in excess of 80% of each SMR by value – focusing on standardised, commercially available and off-the-shelf components.

Rolls-Royce SMR will move away from the high cost and high-risk complex construction programme principles into predictable factory built commodities. 

Approximately 90% of manufacturing and assembly activities are carried out in factory conditions, helping to maintain an extremely high-quality product, to reduce onsite disruption and to support international roll out.

Low cost

A highly competitive source of always on clean energy, meeting global challenges in an affordable and investable way.

Rolls-Royce SMR is a low-cost clean energy solution, using proven and commercially available technology to deliver a fully integrated factory built nuclear power plant. 

With a relentless focus on modularisation and maximising the amount of work conducted under factory conditions, we are able to revolutionise how nuclear power gets delivered.

Global & scalable

Making a meaningful impact across multiple countries, meeting unprecedented demand for clean energy solutions.

The need for clean energy solutions has created a global demand for our SMR as countries look for ways to provide reliable solutions to achieve Net Zero.  Our SMR has been designed in direct response to that enormous global challenge and our ambitions are set to match that global market as we look to build a world class global product.

Our factory-built model is entirely scalable, as demand increases, we invest in further factories using the same design and management systems used for all our SMRs.  

Rolls-Royce SMR will support international efforts to decarbonise energy systems, with a forecast to target £250bn of exports. Memorandums of Understanding are already in place with Estonia, Turkey and the Czech Republic.

When fully operational the Rolls-Royce SMR programme is forecast to create 40,000 regional UK jobs by 2050 and generate £52bn in economic benefit.  

The Compact footprint increases site flexibility and maximises potential plant locations, including replacement for existing coal or gas-fired plants.

Investable

Designed to attract traditional forms of capital through a low risk factory-based solution.  

By design, our SMR is focused on attracting all forms of private capital to support the build out of global SMR demand.  With a proven factory built commoditised approach, our SMR will offer investors and lenders a degree of confidence that will enable future customers to access a range of capital options to finance their SMR purchase.

For nuclear energy to play a meaningful and more significant role in our Net Zero ambitions, it must be financeable without the need for Government intervention in the long term.

A Rolls-Royce SMR power station will have the capacity to generate 470mw of low carbon energy, equivalent to more than 150 onshore wind turbines. It will provide consistent baseload generation for at least 60 years, helping to support the roll-out of renewable generation.

In addition to stable base load power, Rolls-Royce SMRs will be able to provide energy for the Net Zero manufacture of green hydrogen and synthetic fuels, to support the path to Net Zero and the decarbonisation of transport.

It will occupy approximately one tenth of the size of a conventional nuclear generation site, helping to reduce local ecological impacts. 

Rolls-Royce SMR will be factory built, enabling completed modules to be transported by truck, train or barge, reducing vehicle movements and completion risk and increasing build time certainty.

What they are saying


The UK SMR heralds a new approach to the cost of nuclear power by broadly rethinking the manufacturing and construction methods and by the extensive use of digital twinning whilst keeping the physics package exactly the same. This is a pressurised water reactor of a type we know and love.

Paul Stein, Rolls-Royce Chief Technology Officer

Small modular reactor technology is very much at the centre of what the Prime Minister outlined in the 10-point plan; in fact, the nuclear segment of that plan was the third item on the agenda and is extremely important. SMRs will certainly play a part in our nuclear future.

Rt Hon. Kwasi Kwarteng, Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

One of the benefits of the SMR approach, is it becomes quite a low-cost source of energy for other parts of the decarbonisation scene, such as hydrogen and synthetic fuel.

Paul Stein, Rolls-Royce Chief Technology Officer

Next generation technologies such as Small and Advanced Modular Reactors, new nuclear will both produce low carbon power and create jobs and growth across the UK.

The Ten Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution, HM Government

SMRs represent a huge opportunity…they are flexible and one can operate them in lots of geographical areas. We will undertake a comprehensive assessment of the siting requirements for SMRs and advanced modular reactors so that we can develop this exciting technology.

Rt Hon. Kwasi Kwarteng, Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy