UK and US line up string of deals to build modular nuclear reactors in Britain | Centrica

Work plans for a massive expansion of nuclear energy received a boost with a series of transatlantic offers for new modular reactors announced before Donald Trump’s visit.

Governments of the United Kingdom and the United States have promised to speed up security checks and have announced several new private sector investment offers, the workforce emphasizing potential advantages for jobs and growth.

In the largest and most advanced commercial project, the largest British energy supplier Centrica will join the American company X-Energy reactors to build up to 12 advanced modular reactors in Hartlepool, announcing an investment that could create up to 2,500 jobs in northeast England.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer said that the US-UK agreement, which should be officially signed during the state visit, was a “historic nuclear partnership” which would also feed economic growth.

He said: “These major commitments allowed us to golden in a nuclear golden age that will lower household bills in the long term, while offering thousands of good short -term jobs.”

Under the unprecedented agreement, Great Britain and the United States will accept everyone’s safety checks on the conceptions of the reactors, which has almost half the time that a nuclear project was authorized at around two years.

The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero declared that the agreement would open the way to a strong expansion of nuclear projects, in a sector which has already added 11,000 jobs this year, according to the Nuclear Industry Association.

The X-Energy-Centrica agreement confirms a nuclear future for Hartlepool, where the existing reactor should be put out of service by 2028, and opens the way to a potential program of 20 modular or more reactors across the country, providing as much power, 6GW, as the current total production of Great Britain. The 12 Hartlepool reactors are expected to generate enough power for up to 1.5 million houses.

Other announced companies include plans of the American nuclear company Holtec, EDF Energy and the real estate developer Tritax, for advanced data centers supplied by small modular reactors in the former coal -fired power plant in Cottam in Nottinghamshire, in a project of 11 billion pounds sterling.

Another American reactor company, Last Energy, is associated with DP World, owner of P & O Ferries, to develop one of the first micro-modular nuclear power plants in the world. He would provide the port of Gateway and the London Gateway Business Park of the DP.

The government has said that more nuclear installations were necessary for its own local power to ensure energy security, with commercial transactions after the announcement of Starmer this year of the largest nuclear energy in generations, and the possible start for the new Tilialell C station suffolk with billions of public funding.

Ministers also hope to attract significant technological investments in the United States in AI data centers with the promise of abundant electricity to meet their enormous electricity needs.

US Energy Secretary Chris Wright said the United States was looking for commercial nuclear energy to “feed the AI ​​revolution”. He said: “Responding to this demand will require solid partnerships with our allies around the world and robust collaboration with private sector innovators.”

Transactions, he added, “would trigger commercial access to the United States and the United Kingdom, improving global energy security, strengthening the domination of American energy and securing nuclear supply chains across the Atlantic”.

Tom Greatrex, the Director General of the Nuclear Industry Association, said that transatlantic transactions would contribute to the “industrial renaissance in the sector, creating thousands of high-value jobs and strengthening the energy security of the United Kingdom”.

In addition to trying to further reduce dependence on energy abroad, the British -American agreement – known as the Atlantic Partnership for Advanced Nuclear Energy – will seek to eliminate any remaining dependence on Russian nuclear materials by the end of 2028.

The agreement will mean that the two countries accelerate reactor design checks by collaborating and accepting regulatory assessments of the other, avoiding the duplication of bureaucracy. The government has said that this rationalized approach would help British exports, with Rolls-Royce having its small design of modular reactors in the United States approved.