Rolls-Royce SMR plans manufacturing development centre in Derby

The company said Pioneer Works will be a non-nuclear site, housing specialist engineering and manufacturing projects that are critical to the successful deployment of its first power plants. It will create and sustain around 40 highly skilled, long-term roles as the facility ramps up, spanning advanced engineering, welding, testing, precision assembly and manufacturing development, while helping train the next generation in these skills.

The GBP12 million (USD16 million) facility - set to open later this year - will develop and validate the techniques, technologies and processes required to assemble the primary circuit and highest integrity components that sit at the heart of the nuclear power plant.

The Pioneer Works site will operate alongside Rolls-Royce SMR's existing EXPERI facility at the University of Sheffield's Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre. EXPERI will continue to play a role in developing Rolls-Royce SMR's unique modular approach to delivering proven nuclear technologies. Together, these two facilities will underpin Rolls-Royce SMR's delivery plan - helping move from design and prototype manufacture through to full modular assembly and power plant delivery.

"Pioneer Works will be at the centre of our ambition to transform the way nuclear projects are delivered, creating highly skilled jobs, supporting the wider supply chain and harnessing British engineering know-how to drive forward the next generation of nuclear power," said Ruth Todd, Rolls-Royce SMR's Operations and Supply Chain Director. "I'm also incredibly proud that this facility will act as our first training centre to create a future workforce which will help build Rolls-Royce SMR's 'factory-built' nuclear power plants around the world."

_{A cross-section of a Rolls-Royce SMR power plant (Image: 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. Ninety percent of the SMR - measuring about 16 metres by 4 metres - will be built in factory conditions, limiting activity on-site primarily to assembly of pre-fabricated, pre-tested, modules which significantly reduces project risk and has the potential to shorten build schedules.

In October 2024, Rolls-Royce SMR was selected by ČEZ to deploy up to 3 GW of electricity in the Czech Republic, and ČEZ took a 20% stake in Rolls-Royce SMR. The plan is for the first SMR to be deployed in the area of the Temelín site (which already has two gigawatt-scale VVER-100 units), with further projects being developed for coal-fired power plant sites, including Tušimice. Rolls-Royce SMR has signed an early works agreement with ČEZ to progress licensing, permitting and site-specific design for deployment.

In June 2025, Rolls-Royce SMR was selected as the UK government's preferred technology for the country's first SMR project. A final investment decision is expected to be taken in 2029. In November, the UK government announced that Wylfa on the island of Anglesey, North Wales, would be the site to host the three Rolls-Royce SMR units. It said the site - where a Magnox plant is being decommissioned - could potentially host up to eight SMRs. In April, Rolls-Royce SMR signed a contract with Great British Energy - Nuclear (GBE-N) to begin site-specific design and delivery activities for the UK's first SMRs at Wylfa.

In May, GBE-N launched a contest to find a name for the SMR plant to be built at the Wylfa site. The company has now announced that, after hundreds of suggestions were submitted by locals, a panel of young people from Anglesey has decided the plant will be called Gwyndod Power Station. "The name was chosen because it honours the specific identity, resilience, and unique character of the island's people, placing the local community directly at the heart of the project's identity," GBE-N said. "The name is derived from the old name for the region's dialect, Gwyndodeg."

Earlier this month, Swedish nuclear project company Videberg Kraft - owned by Vattenfall and Industrikraft, with the Swedish state due to become majority owner - selected Rolls-Royce SMR as supplier for its project on the Värö Peninsula near Ringhals, where it plans to site three of the UK-based firm's SMRs.