UK selects Rolls-Royce SMR to build small nuclear modular reactors
LONDON, June 10 (Reuters) - Britain has selected Rolls-Royce SMR to build the country's first small modular nuclear reactors as part of its plan to speed up the decarbonisation of the power network from the mid-2030s.
Successive British governments have championed SMRs - effectively small-scale nuclear plants - as a way of avoiding the high upfront costs, planning delays and difficulties of securing investment for traditional nuclear power stations.
The government on Tuesday pledged over 2.5 billion pounds ($3.4 billion) for the small modular reactor programme.
Rolls-Royce SMR will enter a strategic development partnership with state-owned Great British Energy - Nuclear following approvals by regulators, it said.
Rolls-Royce SMR was named as preferred bidder following a two-year competition with a multi-billion-pound technology contract likely to follow.
The company is majority owned by Rolls-Royce, the FTSE 100 engineer which makes the systems which power Britain's fleet of nuclear submarines.
($1 = 0.7396 pounds)
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