Rolls-Royce said on Tuesday that following a successful equity raise, it has now established its small modular reactor (SMR) business as part of the UK government’s net zero strategy.
The aerospace and defence giant said the business has been established “to bring forward and deliver at scale the next generation of low cost, low carbon nuclear power technology”.
Rolls-Royce, BNF Resources UK Limited and Exelon Generation Limited will invest £195m across three years. The funding will enable the business to secure grant funding of £210m from UK Research and Innovation funding, first announced by the UK Prime Minister in ‘The Ten Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution’.
Chief executive officer Warren East said: “The SMR programme is one of the ways that Rolls-Royce is meeting the need to ensure the UK continues to develop innovative ways to tackle the global threat of climate change.
“With the Rolls-Royce SMR technology, we have developed a clean energy solution which can deliver cost competitive and scalable net zero power for multiple applications from grid and industrial electricity production to hydrogen and synthetic fuel manufacturing. The business could create up to 40,000 jobs, through UK deployment and export enabled growth. As a major shareholder in Rolls-Royce SMR, we will continue to support its path to successful deployment.”
