The UK will build its first small modular reactor (SMR) nuclear plant at Wylfa on Anglesey, an island off northwest Wales - but it won't generate power until the mid-2030s.
The £2.5 billion ($3.3 billion) project will initially deploy three Rolls-Royce SMR units capable of powering three million homes, with potential to expand to eight reactors.
Government-owned Great British Energy - Nuclear (GBE-N) plans to start construction in 2026 as part of the country's "clean energy superpower" mission.
The timing problem is critical. The UK urgently needs generation capacity to support its mandated shift to electric vehicles and plans for AI-hungry datacenters.
AWS has called nuclear an "excellent source of zero-carbon, 24/7 power," but Alan Howard, principal analyst at Omdia, says commercially viable SMRs remain roughly a decade away.
"Operational SMRs appear to be on the near-term horizon a bit earlier than 2030," he said. "These announcements, at least in the US, are commonly test reactors which is the next development step. Omdia has talked with many power generation project developers and the consensus is that broad market acceptance and availability is likely around 2035, so about ten years out."
"We hope we're wrong and we'll see better progress sooner, but from an infrastructure planning perspective this is the more pragmatic view," Howard added.
Datacenter developers are unable to wait for SMRs, and many are looking to generate electrical power on-site for new datacenter campuses, typically using gas-fired turbines.
Rolls-Royce SMR selected in June from four contenders, will build the reactors. CEO Chris Cholerton said the company would "deliver nuclear power very differently by utilizing modularization and a high level of factory build, therefore minimizing the impact on local people."
The Wylfa was acquired by GBE-N from engineering firm Hitachi early in 2024 for £160 million ($210 million), along with another nuclear plant at Oldbury in Gloucestershire.
The government is also considering further large-scale reactor projects beyond the current deployments at Hinkley Point C and the recently confirmed Sizewell C. GBE-N has been tasked with identifying suitable sites from all over the UK. Any such site would be expected to provide enough power for about six million homes. ®
Source: The register