The Great British Energy – Nuclear, formerly known as Great British Nuclear, has chosen Rolls-Royce SMR as its small modular reactor vendor for its upcoming nuclear projects.
GBE-N, a nuclear energy and fuel company owned by the United Kingdom government, has pledged over £2.5 billion ($3.4 billion US$) for a small modular reactor program, according to its Tuesday press release. The project plans to support 3,000 jobs and power around 3 million homes with electricity.
Rolls-Royce SMR, a U.K. subsidiary to Rolls-Royce Holdings, was selected after a two-year selection process. The U.K. government-owned company intends to sign contracts with Rolls-Royce SMR later this year and will form a development company.
The U.K. SMR company beat out GE Hitachi Vernova, Holtec and Westinghouse in its competition to be the SMR vendor, according to GBE-N. Westinghouse dropped out of the competition in April, as reported by The Telegraph UK.
The result of the competition was the first step towards reducing costs and securing private funding, helping the U.K. realize its long-term ambition of delivering one of Europe’s first SMR fleets, GBE-N said.
The competition began in July 2023 as the GBE-N sought the interest of nuclear companies to build SMRs in the UK. The UK government has set out a goal of having nuclear energy provide up to a quarter of the country’s electricity by 2050.
Rolls-Royce SMR is in the final stage of its assessment by the U.K. nuclear industry’s independent regulators.
In October 2024, Rolls-Royce SMR was selected by Czech utility ČEZ to deliver up to 3 gigawatts of electricity in the Czech Republic.
