Rolls-Royce Secures £599M for UK Mini-Reactor Project

Rolls-Royce has secured up to £599 million from Britain’s national wealth fund to support the development of small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs) at the decommissioned Wylfa power station site on Anglesey, Wales . The funding was announced on Monday and is intended to allow work to begin immediately on the SMR programme, according to the announcement.

The investment is aimed at strengthening the UK’s energy security and supporting the creation of a new export-oriented industry around nuclear technology. Officials said the funding will back Rolls-Royce’s SMR design and manufacturing work, with the company positioning SMRs as a route to lower costs and faster installation than conventional large nuclear plants.

Wylfa is a former nuclear power station site that operated from 1971 to 2015 . The site was acquired in 2024 by the state-owned Great British Energy – Nuclear (GBE-N) . That purchase followed Hitachi abandoning plans in 2020 for a new power station at Wylfa, leaving the location available for alternative nuclear development pathways.

The UK government has framed the SMR effort as part of a broader push to expand carbon-free electricity generation while building a domestic nuclear technology sector. The initiative is projected to create about 1,000 jobs , according to the announcement, linking the project to industrial policy goals as well as energy planning.

Rolls-Royce SMR is described as being majority-owned by Rolls-Royce , with additional investment from Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund , France’s BNF Resources , and Czech utility CEZ . The company has also set out international ambitions for its SMR technology, including plans connected to deployment at Temelín in the Czech Republic .

For markets and policymakers, the announcement ties together public capital, domestic manufacturing objectives, and long-term infrastructure development at a site with an established nuclear history. At the same time, key details such as the pace of delivery, the final scale of deployment at Wylfa, and how quickly export opportunities translate into orders were not specified in the announcement.