South Yorkshire is set to host the UK’s first dedicated small nuclear reactor (SMR) factory, a major boost to the region’s economy and the UK’s nuclear industry.
Holtec, a privately owned nuclear company based in Florida, has chosen South Yorkshire as its preferred location for the £1.5bn facility after considering sites across the country, including in the West Midlands, Cumbria and Teesside.
The plant could create up to 3,000 high-tech jobs, making components for small nuclear reactors – a technology that could be central to the UK’s planned nuclear renaissance. Holtec is exploring several sites in the county, including around Doncaster.
“Holtec UK has been impressed by the interest in our new SMR plants across the UK and the strong support we have received from local authorities during our tenure,” said Gareth Thomas, Holtec UK Managing Director. “South Yorkshire has beaten off stiff competition from other parts of the UK to become our preferred location for our state-of-the-art SMR plant.”
The area offers practical benefits to Holtec, including proximity to Sheffield Forgemasters, which specialises in the complex casting processes required for reactor structures, and a skilled workforce rooted in heavy engineering traditions.
Oliver Coppard, Lord Mayor of South Yorkshire, commented: “In South Yorkshire, we are building on hundreds of years of innovation and engineering heritage to create world-leading facilities, skills and expertise today; assets that will support the clean energy transition in the UK and beyond. We are on the cusp of new nuclear, hydrogen and sustainable aviation sectors, and are proud to be home to the UK’s largest clean tech sector.”
Small nuclear reactors are seen as a potential breakthrough in nuclear technology, aiming to reduce the cost and time of building nuclear power plants. Unlike large reactors that are built from scratch on site, small nuclear reactors are built from factory-made modules and assembled on site, which proponents say would make them cheaper and faster to mass-produce.
Holtec is one of five companies competing for government funding to build the country’s first small nuclear reactors, alongside Rolls-Royce, Westinghouse, GE Hitachi and NuScale. The government agency overseeing the competition, Great British Nuclear, is expected to narrow the shortlist from five to four later this month. Two winners are expected to be selected either late this year or early 2025 and awarded development sites.