DEESIDE has been shortlisted by Rolls-Royce SMR as a potential location for its first factory.

This is the first of three factories and will manufacture the ‘heavy vessels’ for its Small Modular Reactor (SMR) power station. 

Construction will begin once Rolls-Royce SMR receives the go-ahead to build a fleet of SMRs in the UK.

The shortlist was selected against a clear set of criteria, picked from over 100 submissions from Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) and development agencies – suggesting sites across the UK where the Rolls-Royce SMR factories could be located. 

It would see the creation of over 200 permanent jobs for the area in addition to an estimated £100 - £200 million value to the region.

Other locations mooted for the factory include North East, Richmond in North Yorkshire, Ferrybridge in Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and Carlisle.

Rolls-Royce SMR chief executive Tom Samson said it had had a "fantastic" response to calls for suggestions of where the site could be, which showed the "ambition and appetite of the UK" for the reactors which would "provide affordable, low-carbon electricity for generations to come".

He added: “The final location will come from the shortlist and will result in significant investment, long-term high-skilled jobs and will support the UK Government’s aspirations for levelling-up. Today’s announcement is another example of the pace of our project and why Rolls-Royce SMR is the UK’s domestic nuclear energy champion.”

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The factory is expected to be around 23,000 square metres in size which is equivalent to three football pitches.

The other two factories will manufacture civils modules and mechanical electrical and plumbing (MEP) modules – which will be transported to sites and assembled into a nuclear power station that will generate 470MW of low-carbon electricity. These locations will be selected from the full list of submissions – giving all locations further opportunities to host a Rolls-Royce SMR factory.

Secretary of State for Business Energy and Industrial Strategy, Rt Hon Kwasi Kwarteng MP, said: “This is fantastic news for Sunderland, North Yorkshire, Deeside, Lincolnshire and Carlisle which, if these SMRs go ahead, could be at the forefront of manufacturing components for this British-made tech. 

“Backed by £210m, SMRs have the potential to provide quicker and cheaper low-carbon nuclear power, and today’s announcement underlines the potential for new jobs around the country created by embracing this new technology.”

The Rolls-Royce SMR power station will have the capacity to generate 470MW of low carbon energy, equivalent to more than 150 onshore wind turbines and enough to power a million homes.

It will provide consistent baseload generation for at least 60 years, helping to support the roll out of renewable generation and overcome intermittency issues.