Rolls Royce

A Rolls-Royce-led consortium has unveiled a new design for its proposed factory-built nuclear power station

Rolls-Royce has started building a demonstrator engine with technology to improve efficiency and make aviation more sustainable

The study of small modular reactors will cover all aspects of deployment, including grid suitability, cooling, emergency planning, human resources, licensing feasibility, economics and supply chain

The taxiing of the plane is a critical test of the integration of the aircraft’s propulsion system, ahead of actual flight-testing, which has been planned for the Spring

The technology is predicted to halve the projected duration of journeys to Mars to up to four months

It includes Rolls-Royce’s activities and teams based in France, the Czech Republic and China but excludes its civil nuclear business or small modular reactor activities in the UK

Each compact nuclear power station is predicted to have a total capacity of 440MW, enough to power a city of 450,000 homes for 60 years

The British multinational engineering company is leading a consortium that is designing a low cost factory-built nuclear plant

The project aims to beat the current all-electric flight world record early next year

The batteries will serve as a power reserve, provide grid support and enable the increased use of renewable energy