Rolls Royce Small Modular Reactors signs £3.7m contract with Sheffield Forgemasters

Rolls-Royce Small Modular Reactor (SMR), which is majority-owned by the engineering giant, has been set up to develop sites that are around a tenth of the size of traditional reactors.

Rolls-Royce SMR has signed a contract with Sheffield Forgemasters to enable the first forgings to be manufactured to support the deployment of Rolls-Royce SMRs.

A Rolls-Royce SMR power station will have the capacity to generate 470MW of low carbon energy, which is equivalent to more than 150 onshore wind turbines.

A spokesman said: "The £3.7m contract will be delivered by Forgemasters, kick-starting the UK nuclear renaissance and the development of commercial Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) in the UK. The forgings form part of Rolls-Royce SMR’s work to achieve regulatory approval and will allow both parties to understand and develop manufacturing procedures and techniques, to de-risk and accelerate the important first production of these vital components.

"Sheffield Forgemasters is the only UK company able to produce these significant forgings. As a result, Rolls-Royce SMR will benefit from Sheffield Forgemasters’ decades of experience and delivery abilities.

"This is the first major supply chain material contract enabled by the coming together of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) grant funding, delivered through the Low Cost Nuclear challenge and private capital, to form the Rolls-Royce SMR business."

Matthew Blake, Rolls-Royce SMR’s Chief Engineer commented: “Sheffield Forgemasters are world leaders in forgings and castings, and we are incredibly fortunate to have their experience to support our SMR programme.

"This contract enables us to work in parallel, testing manufacturing processes and procedures while developing the technology, which will allow us to move at pace when we reach the deployment stage. We are committed to delivering the SMR fleet with a focus on maximising the UK’s supply chain and this significant contract is just the start as we look to re- energise the vital UK nuclear supply chain.”

David Bond, CEO of Sheffield Forgemasters, said: “These forgings will be integral to the overall evaluation of routes to manufacture for the Rolls-Royce SMR programme. The forgings will require highly detailed simulation work and analysis from our team to deliver components which will meet exacting nuclear-grade standards. We are very excited to be working with Rolls-Royce SMR on the first deliverables for this project.”