US nuclear engineering group Holtec has selected South Yorkshire as the preferred site for its new small modular reactor (SMR) factory.
The proposed factory represents a £1.5 billion investment, and hundreds of skilled jobs. It will produce SMR components for the UK, Europe and the Middle East.
Holtec says that at least 70 per cent of materials, components and work will be sourced from the UK, with significant supply chain opportunities, particularly in and around South Yorkshire.
Holtec considered 13 potential locations for the factory, with a final shortlist of four.
“In addition to the technical, supply chain, training, and logistics criteria for the formal evaluation, we were also impressed by the history and pride of the people we met during our visit to South Yorkshire, which demonstrated the workforce really cares about the quality and reputation of their work,” said Gareth Thomas, director at Holtec Britain. “For Holtec, that translates to a workforce that can be trained and will remain committed to delivering the high-quality nuclear products that Holtec, and our customers, demand.”
The Nuclear AMRC hosted Holtec’s UK supply chain engagement event in March, with around 100 companies discussing opportunities to support Holtec’s SMR-300 design.
The SMR-300 is a 300MWe pressurised water reactor, developed in collaboration with Mitsubishi Electric and Hyundai Engineering and Construction. US-based Holtec proposes to deploy around 5GWe of SMRs in serial production in the UK by 2050.
The SMR-300 is one of five SMR designs being considered for UK deployment by Great British Nuclear. In December 2023, Holtec secured £30 million from the government’s Future Nuclear Enabling Fund (FNEF) to start the generic design assessment (GDA) process, and completed the first step in August.
Holtec has also announced that it has signed memoranda of understanding with two other centres within the High Value Manufacturing Catapult, the University of Sheffield AMRC and the Coventry-based Manufacturing Technology Centre, to support SMR manufacturing and testing.
