UK homes to get power from £2.5 billion mini nuclear reactors – how it will work
Key Points
- UK's first small modular reactors to be built at Wylfa, Anglesey
- £2.5bn investment with Rolls-Royce SMR contract signed
- Reactors powerful enough to supply around one million homes
- Over 3,000 local jobs created at peak construction
- Part of wider push to cut energy costs and boost security
Around one million UK homes will be powered by the country’s first small modular nuclear reactors, backed by a £2.5 billion government investment at Wylfa on Anglesey.
Great British Energy Nuclear signed a contract with Rolls-Royce SMR to build the reactors, with the Department for Business and Trade confirming the programme in its Industrial Strategy Year One report, published this week.
The £599 million committed to the Rolls-Royce Small Modular Reactor programme so far will deliver units powerful enough to supply around a million of today’s homes.
Small modular reactors are factory-built nuclear power stations that are smaller and cheaper to construct than traditional plants.
Because major components are manufactured off-site and assembled at the location, build times and costs are designed to fall with each unit produced, in contrast to large one-off projects.
The government said the Wylfa programme will strengthen the UK’s energy security, reducing exposure to the volatile fossil fuel prices that have driven up household bills in recent years.
The project will create over 3,000 local jobs at peak construction and thousands more across the supply chain, creating a long-term industrial programme in North Wales. The government said the UK SMR programme at Wylfa is hitting its target for British contracts, meaning most of the construction spend stays with UK firms and workers.
The reactors form part of a wider nuclear acceleration, with the government implementing all recommendations from the Nuclear Regulatory Review to speed up approvals.
Reforms to judicial review also mean claimants now have just one attempt, rather than three, to challenge consent decisions on nuclear projects deemed without merit, cutting years of delay from delivery timelines.
Nuclear fuel exports are expanding alongside, with UK Export Finance committing £210m of support for Urenco, supporting more than 650 jobs in Chester and around 4,500 across the wider UK supply chain.
The Wylfa investment sits within a doubling of annual government investment in clean energy industries to over £30bn, with £100bn of private investment announced into the sector since July 2024.
For households, the reactors promise a new source of steady, low-carbon electricity feeding the grid from the early 2030s, at a time when the government has committed to cutting energy costs across the economy.
