British engineering company Rolls-Royce has begun to assess locations that could potentially accommodate Small Modular Reactors (SMRs).

Last week, a team from Rolls-Royce SMR visited potential locations for its SMR power stations and met stakeholders from communities around the Berkeley and Oldbury nuclear sites.

The visit follows an announcement last year where Rolls-Royce SMR prioritised its first four sites which have the potential to host 15GW of new nuclear power.

Oldbury was amongst the sites in this ‘first wave’ with Berkeley presenting “significant potential” and earmarked for further investigation by the company.

David White, Rolls-Royce SMR’s Chief Operating Officer, said: “We are looking to agree a route forward with the government to enable us to start building British factories, commissioning supply chain contracts and agreeing export deals abroad as soon as possible. It is vital that we maintain the momentum we have created and move from development into deployment.”

Cllr Toby Savage, Vice Chair of the Western Gateway Partnership, said: “It is great to see continued interest in our sites at Oldbury and Berkeley. Our area has a long history of expertise in pioneering new forms of energy generation and it was good to be able to demonstrate this to our guests from Rolls-Royce SMR.”