Rolls Royce, Wylfa SMRs

Quintessentially British Rolls-Royce wants to put its new small reactors

on Anglesey, but it turns out they’re not small or even particularly
British, writes Linda Pentz Gunter. Rolls-Royce has entered the commercial
nuclear reactor market, proposing its own small modular reactor (SMR)
design — which, at 470 megawatts, isn’t actually very small at all.
Many of Britain’s old Magnox reactors, now all permanently closed, were
smaller than that. Two of the largest, at Wylfa in Anglesey, were each 490
megawatts. Ironically, it is to Wylfa that Rolls-Royce is looking to site
its first not so small modular reactors. It is planning for three there —
with the capacity to extend to eight — and even won a competition
conducted by Great British Energy-Nuclear to become the preferred bidder to
place SMRs at the Wylfa site, purchased by the government from Hitachi in
March 2024 after the Japanese company ditched plans to build two full-size
reactors there. The prize for Rolls-Royce’s winning bid was £2.5 billion
in public funding (i.e. taxpayer money) toward the cost of the first three
SMRs, not such good news for people who can’t afford to drive
Rolls-Royces. Another £25 million is to be shelled out to two engineering
consultancies, WSP and Mott MacDonald, who will advise on environmental
assessments, permitting and regulatory compliance. As Linda Clare Rogers
co-deputy leader of the Welsh Green Party, asked in a letter to her
Anglesey MP Llinos Medi of Plaid Cymru: “Why does Rolls-Royce need £25m
of our money to spend on advisers and engineers to help it meet
environmental and legal requirements, if they are confident what they’re
doing is serviceable? As this is public money, will we have a say in
proceedings? If not, why not? Other public services involve public
engagement.”

 Beyond Nuclear 23rd March 2026 

 https://beyondnuclearinternational.org/2026/03/23/a-great-british-nuke-off-in-wales/