In July, Rolls-Royce SMR announced its shortlisted locations for the first factory to manufacture components for its Small Modular Reactor (SMR) power station. Over the next six weeks, a team from Rolls-Royce SMR will visit the locations to gather more information that will assist with a further 'down-select' of the factory sites.

David White has been appointed as Chief Operating Officer of Rolls-Royce SMR and will oversee the work to construct the factories required to deploy a fleet of SMRs, each capable of generating 470MW of clean, low-carbon, affordable and sustainable electricity – enough to power a million homes. David said:

“I’d like to thank the Local Enterprise Partnerships, the Welsh Government and the owners of the shortlisted sites for their continued support and cooperation.

“The overwhelmingly positive response, resulting in more potential sites than we might have hoped for, means we have more information to assess but is vitally important in helping us select the right locations for our factory.”

“We’re also pleased to announce that another two locations – Shotton, Deeside and Teesworks, Redcar – have been added to the shortlist after the sites met the selection criteria.”

Rolls-Royce SMR’s approach is a radically different way of deploying nuclear power stations – where 90% of the components are manufactured in a factory environment. A factory for the Rolls-Royce SMR programme will bring significant investment, long-term High-skilled jobs and sustainable economic growth for the area.