Rolls-Royce lands £85m Qatar boost for small nuclear reactors

Plans by Rolls-Royce to develop small nuclear reactors in the UK were today boosted by £85 million of investment from Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund.

Boss Warren East said the Government-backed Small Modular Reactor (SMR) business is now “set up to succeed” after Qatar took a 10% stake in the project.

Rolls expects each SMR power station will have the capacity to generate 470MW of low carbon energy, equivalent to more than 150 onshore wind turbines. They will provide consistent baseload generation for at least 60 years and help support the roll- out of renewable power.

East thinks the venture could create up to 40,000 UK jobs and have the potential to connect to the UK grid by the early 2030s. The project is being backed by £210 million of government investment.

Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng, left, said Qatar’s support was a clear vote of confidence in the UK’s global leadership in nuclear innovation. He added: “It represents a huge step forward in our plan to deploy more home-grown, affordable clean energy.”

The Qatar Investment Authority joins Rolls-Royce, BNF Resources and Exelon Generation as shareholders in Rolls-Royce SMR.

East said: “The business is now set up to succeed.”