Rolls Royce secures British government $283mln grant for small modular reactor

Rolls-Royce has received a grant funding of US$283 million  (£210 million) from UK Research and Innovation funding to build the Rolls-Royce Small Modular Reactor (SMR), in an attempt to bring forward and deliver at scale the next generation of low cost, low carbon nuclear power technology. 

“Small Modular Reactors offer exciting opportunities to cut costs and build more quickly, ensuring we can bring clean electricity to people’s homes and cut our already-dwindling use of volatile fossil fuels even further,” said Business and Energy Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng. 

Rolls-Royce said that with their SMR technology, they 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.”

Rolls-Royce Group, BNF Resources UK Limited and Exelon Generation Limited will invest £195m across a period of around three years, the company said in a statement. Upon completion Rolls-Royce will own 80 percent of the Rolls-Royce SMR, the company said. 

"The (SMR) business could create up to 40,000 jobs, through UK deployment and export enabled growth," Rolls Royce Chief Executive Warren East said in the statement, which is an aim of the British government.