Britain’s first mini nuclear power station gets the green light: ‘Small modular reactors’ will be built by Rolls-Royce in north Wales – and will provide enough power for 3 MILLION homes

Britain’s first mini nuclear power station in Wales will power millions of homes within a decade.

The government has announced that three ‘small modular reactors’ (SMRs) will be built at a new power station at Wylfa on the Anglesey coast in North Wales.

Each small reactor designed and built by Rolls-Royce will provide enough energy to power 1 million homes for at least 60 years, or 3 million homes in total.

An artist’s impression from the company shows a strange rectangular design of the facility that will cover roughly the size of two football fields.

Wylfa, which houses a former nuclear power plant that was closed in 2015, will provide energy to the grid from the mid-2030s and become a ‘sign’ of the nuclear golden age.

Simon Bowen, chairman of government company Great British Energy-Nuclear, described the announcement as ‘a historic moment for the UK’.

‘Wylfa has a proud history of nuclear excellence and we’re excited to build on this foundation to deliver jobs, education and low-carbon energy for future generations,’ he said.

Nuclear power is touted as a safe, clean and sustainable energy source that could meet the world’s energy needs, but more importantly, SMRs are generally more practical to build than larger, more traditional nuclear power plants.

Just like the larger conventional reactors already in use around the world, SMRs produce energy by forcing radioactive elements to undergo a process called fission.

During this process, the element breaks down into smaller, more stable elements, releasing heat that can be used to drive steam turbines, thus generating electricity.

As the name suggests, small modular reactors (SMRs) are designed to be built in a factory and then shipped to sites for installation.

They are claimed to be faster and cheaper to build than more conventional power plants such as Hinkley Point C, a nuclear power station under construction in Somerset.

By committing £2.5bn of funding to this project, the government is pinning its hopes on SMRs, which are described as having a power capacity of 300 megawatts, around a third of the generating capacity of conventional ones.

But critics believe SMRs would be prohibitively expensive because they might not achieve the economies of scale of larger facilities.

Moreover, there is still debate over the status of nuclear as a planet-friendly energy source compared to solar and wind.

Nuclear energy itself is renewable, but the material used in fission reactions (uranium) is non-renewable and is mined from the ground.

The government has announced the construction of three small modular reactors (SMR) at Wylfa on the Anglesey coast of Wales. Wylfa is the site of a former nuclear power station that was closed in 2015 (pictured)

In addition, SMRs will likely produce long-lived nuclear waste, primarily spent uranium fuel, which has long been considered radioactive and hazardous.

Ed Lyman, director of nuclear energy safety at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said ‘the hype surrounding SMRs is greatly exaggerated’.

He added that they were ‘no more economical than large reactors’, ‘no safer or more secure overall’ and ‘will not alleviate the problem of what to do with radioactive waste’.

‘SMRs differ from today’s conventional nuclear power plants, which are typically around 1,000 megawatts and largely custom-built,’ Lyman said.

‘Just like today’s nuclear power plants, SMRs will be vulnerable to extreme weather events or other disasters that could cause off-site power loss and force them to shut down.

‘With virtually no experience operating SMRs worldwide, it is highly doubtful that the new designs currently offered will be highly reliable out of the box.’

Elsewhere, SMRs are currently under construction in China and Russia, while in the US a company called TerraPower has applied for permission to build one (at the planned 345 megawatts, Lyman said it wouldn’t technically be an SMR).

Google is also supporting Kairos Power’s construction of seven SMRs that will power data centers with large energy requirements.

It is hoped that the construction of SMRs will be faster than more traditional facilities such as Hinkley Point C, which is under construction in Somerset. Pictured, workers stand near the 245-ton domed roof of the second reactor building at Hinkley Point C, July 17, 2025

The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) said the project at Wylfa would support up to 3,000 jobs in the local economy during peak construction.

But the plans sparked an angry response from US ambassador Warren Stephens, who was ‘extremely disappointed’ by the decision.

The Ambassador had been pushing for a larger reactor at Wylfa, and US firm Westinghouse had reportedly submitted plans to the UK government to build a new gigawatt station at the site.

He said: ‘If you want to get shovels in the ground as soon as possible and make a big move on energy prices and availability, there is a different path and we look forward to decisions on large-scale nuclear projects being made soon.

‘As I have said many times, we want the UK to be the strongest possible ally of the US and high energy costs are an obstacle to this.’