Rolls-Royce is aiming to commercialise mini nuclear reactors in the UK by 2029.
The manufacturer told the BBC’s Today programme that it plans to install and operate factory-built power stations by the end of this decade.
Rolls-Royce is leading a consortium to build small modular reactors (SMRs) and install them in former nuclear sites in Cumbria or in Wales. The company said it will potentially build between 10 and 15 of the stations in the UK.
The SMRs are about 1.5 acres in size, within a 10-acre space, a 16th of the size of a major power station such as Hinkley Point.
In the past few years, major nuclear projects have been abandoned as Japanese companies Toshiba and Hitachi pulled out because they could not get the required funding, while the construction of Hinkley Point in Somerset could cost £3bn more than was expected.
“The trick is to have prefabricated parts where we use advanced digital welding methods and robotic assembly and then parts are shipped to site and bolted together,” Rolls-Royce chief technology officer Paul Stein told the BBC.
He said the approach would “dramatically reduce” the cost of building nuclear power sites, resulting in cheaper electricity.
Rolls-Royce aims to achieve economies of scale to leverage cost reductions by exporting the SMRs.
The BBC reported that critics have warned that SMRs will not be ready in substantial numbers until the mid-2030s, by which time electricity needs to be carbon-free in the UK already to meet climate change targets.