Building SMRs could create 40,000 jobs in the UK: Rolls-Royce
"Tens of thousands" of highly skilled jobs could be created if the UK government chooses a consortium led by Rolls-Royce for its £250m ($310.77m) project to develop small modular reactors (SMRs), according to Harry Holt, president at Rolls-Royce's nuclear business. Holt said the project was an "opportunity to change the whole paradigm of technology" and make Britain a main exporter of SMR technology, adding that with a £2.9bn price tag, SMRs could be cheaper than Hinkley Point. Global demand for nuclear energy is predicted to hit between 65 GW and 85 GW, and be worth £250bn-£400bn.

Derby-based Rolls-Royce is heading a consortium competing in a £250 million Government competition to develop small modular reactors (SMRs).It says that taking the lead in developing a new generation of nuclear reactors could create 40,000 highly skilled jobs and generate export sales worth hundreds of billions of pounds.Expected to cover about 10 football fields — around 10% of the size of a conventional nuclear power station — these ‘mini’ nuclear power plants could be “vital in securing Britain’s future energy supply, as well meeting climate change targets,” Rolls-Royce said.The company has more than 50 years’ experience of building power plants for Royal Navy submarines; it is heading a consortium of 12 businesses bidding to be selected to develop the technology.Harry Holt, head of Rolls-Royce’s nuclear business, said: “The Britishness of our proposal is very strong; we’re talking about high-value intellectual property being created here.“This is not a case of British companies doing low-value work, such as pouring the concrete for the building work. Other contenders in the competition include the USA’s NuScale Power, France’s EDF and the Chinese nuclear company CNNC.“The provenance of competitors could prove a crucial factor in deciding a winner,” said one analyst. “The giant Hinkley Point nuclear plant in Somerset is being built by EDF with financial support from China; the use of foreign expertise and money is proving politically controversial”.Mr Holt said: “This is an opportunity to change the whole paradigm of technology from importing expertise into Britain to exporting it.” He added that, with most of the major markets for SMRs outside Europe, “the technology could be a vital part of any campaign to secure trade ties with countries beyond the EU. Our consortium believes that it will cost £1.2 billion to develop SMR technology fully and a further £1.7 billion to get the first SMR running.“Costs are then forecast to fall as more are built, with the modular design meaning that the system is built in chunks in factories, then assembled on-site. This means that SMRs will be quicker to build than conventional bespoke designs such as Hinkley, as well as cheaper — and therefore easier to finance.”Mr Holt continued: “We have a time-line of having our first SMR connected to the energy grid by 2028,” but he added that this depends on when the Government picks the competition’s winner.“We are comfortable with progress at the moment, but to hit that deadline, we need to be going into the licensing process with the regulator in 2017.”News of how the Government has decided to move forward with the competition could come as early as the Autumn Statement, which takes place on the 23 November.