A consortium of private investors and the UK government have supported the Rolls-Royce engineering corporation in the development of small nuclear reactors for cleaner energy. Rolls-Royce Small Modular Reactor (SMR) has received £ 195 million from private firms and a £ 210 million grant from the government.
The new mini nuclear power plant company is expected to create up to 40,000 jobs by 2050.
Tony Dunker, CEO of the Confederation of British Industries, said the investment in Rolls-Royce was "an extremely promising milestone for a technology that can not only stimulate the economy, but also help create a greener and safer energy system as a whole." /p>
A mini nuclear power plant will take up about one-tenth the area of a conventional nuclear power plant - the equivalent of two soccer fields - and provide electricity to about a million homes.
Rolls-Royce Small Modular Reactor has said its plant will have 470 megawatts of electricity, which it says is the same as 150 onshore wind turbines.
Warren East, CEO of Rolls-Royce, said the technology offers a “clean energy solution” to help tackle climate change.
The expected cost of one mini-reactor is about $ 2 billion, which is 10 times cheaper than the usual one. If approved for use in the UK, Rolls-Royce SMR is expected to build up to 16 reactors across the UK to generate electricity.
Currently, about 16% of electricity in the UK is generated by nuclear power.
