The UK government has narrowed its shortlist of technologies competing in its flagship Small Modular Reactor (SMR) competition to four candidates. On Sept. 25, it announced that Westinghouse, GE-Hitachi Nuclear Energy (GEH), Holtec Britain, and Rolls-Royce SMR remain in the running to negotiate potentially multi-billion-pound nuclear technology development contracts under the fast-track initiative aimed at delivering an operational SMR by the mid-2030s.
Great British Nuclear (GBN)—the government body tasked with delivering the UK’s fourfold nuclear power expansion—in a short note, said the four companies had cleared the initial phase of the SMR technology selection process. “In the next stage of the procurement process, bidders will be invited to enter negotiations with GBN,” it said.
The four companies’ technologies were among six shortlisted by GBN in October 2023 to vie for the next stage of the competitive process that it launched in July 2023. In March 2024, the six vendors were invited to submit initial tenders for the two-stage contract for design, development, and construction contract.
When it announced its shortlist last year, GBN anticipated awarding contracts by summer 2024. However, delays have been reportedly compounded by a number of factors, including the UK’s snap generation election in July 2024, which led to the defeat of the governing Conservative Party, led by Rishi Sunak by the opposition Labour Party, led by Keir Starmer, in a landslide victory. No updated timeline has been provided, but GBN has reiterated its commitment to making the competition “the fastest of its kind in the world.”
Rolls Royce probably has the inside track, since it is a UK company. People may think of Rolls Royce as a car manufacturer, but it has supplied the UK navy with nuclear reactors for its submarine fleet going back to the 1960s.
GEH and Westinghouse are probably next in line. Both have some advantages and disadvantages. GEH’s BWRX-300 has been chosen by Ontario Power Generation to supply a plant in Canada, and GEH is further along in getting the final design approval. However, the Westinghouse AP300 is just a smaller single-loop version of its AP1000 design, which is already in service in the US and China in 6 different plants. It has been a while since GE built a nuclear plant.
Holtec is a newcomer as a reactor supplier. They have supplied spent fuel storage containers to several plants, and have purchased and are decommissioning other retired plants. Holtec is also planning to un-retire the Palisades plant in Michigan. They have never built a nuclear power plant, so Holtec is probably the outside shot in this competition.
Much will depend, however, on the prices for each of these. If GEH can offer a better price than Rolls Royce, then GEH might win. It will be interesting to see how things go from here.
As I thought was likely, the Rolls-Royce SMR was chosen as the UK’s SMR reactor.
From the link, about the Rolls-Royce SMR… The Rolls-Royce SMR is a 470 MWe design based on a small pressurised water reactor. It will provide consistent baseload generation for at least 60 years. 90% of the SMR - measuring about 16 metres by 4 metres - will be built in factory conditions, limiting on-site activity primarily to assembly of pre-fabricated, pre-tested, modules which significantly reduces project risk and has the potential to drastically shorten build schedules.
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At 470 MWe, that is at the large end of what we have been calling small modular reactors. But the higher electrical output makes the economics more favorable on a cost per MWh basis.
The UK is not giving up on large gigawatt-scale plants, however. They are progressing toward building two more of France’s EPRs at Sizewell C. I am surprised they are going with the standard EPR model, instead of the EPR-2, which is supposed to be cheaper and easier to construct. I guess the final-final decision won’t be made until later this year, according to the article below…
It’s encouraging to see the UK advancing SMR development with four strong contenders. Rolls-Royce seems to have the political momentum, but I’m intrigued by the US-backed designs too—especially for modular scalability. Whichever wins, localizing supply chains and ensuring realistic cost targets will be critical. SMRs could play a real role in hitting net-zero goals if they avoid past nuclear pitfalls.