Rolls-Royce seeks bids in England and Wales for site to make small nuclear power plants23 Jan 2022 20:57
Rolls-Royce, the UK aero-engine maker, has launched a competition between regions in England and Wales to be the location of the main factory to build a planned fleet of small nuclear reactors.
An industry consortium led by Rolls-Royce has written to several of England’s regional development bodies and the Welsh government asking them to pitch for the manufacturing site, promising investment of up to £200 million (€239 million) and the creation of up to 200 direct jobs.
The consortium secured £210 million from the government last year towards the development of a fleet of mini-reactors after raising a similar amount of private sector funding. UK prime minister Boris Johnson backed small modular reactors as part of his 10-point plan for a “green industrial revolution” to help meet the government’s 2050 net zero carbon target. The technology is viewed within the government as a good way to create manufacturing jobs as well as delivering on Johnson’s “levelling up” agenda to help less developed areas.
Under the plans, the reactors will be built in factories around the country and then assembled on site, reducing the risks and huge costs of construction of big nuclear power plants. The main factory will build the heavy pressure vessels that are part of the reactors.
In its pitch sent to the Local Enterprise Partnerships, voluntary bodies designed to bring business and council leaders together to help set local economic priorities, Rolls-Royce promised that the community chosen to host the factory would benefit from “high value, sustainable jobs which will produce products that will be exported globally for many decades to come”.
The company added that it was looking for proposals that identified “sites based on our selection criteria in your region together with supporting evidence or financial and non- financial support where appropriate”.
Rolls-Royce is not believed to be looking for cash from local councils but is interested in what sort of skills training facilities already exist, how much land is available and local incentives for the deployment of on-site renewable power generation among other things. The company intends to build other, smaller facilities to build modules for the reactors.
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