The North East has moved a step closer to a £200m investment and more than 200 jobs after two regional sites made the shortlist for the home of Rolls-Royce’s first factory set to build small modular reactors.
The engineering giant announced a competition at the start of the year, asking development bodies to bid for the initial site for the small modular reactors’ (SMR) construction, pledging investment of some £200m as well as the creation of more than 200 skilled jobs. The company’s SMR project claims it can cut the cost of nuclear power by building reactor parts in factories and it plans to construct a series of reactors which would each be able to power around one million homes.
Now Sunderland’s IAMP and Forrest Park in Newton Aycliffe, County Durham, have been revealed on the shortlist of locations in England and Wales for the first all-important factory. Other shortlisted locations are Catterick 53, Richmond, North Yorkshire; Gateway in Deeside, North Wales; Ferrybridge in Yorkshire; Grimsby & Pioneer Park, Stallingborough, Greater Lincolnshire and Kingmoor Park, Carlisle, Cumbria.
