Manufacturing firm Rolls-Royce SMR has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Sheffield Forgemasters in moves to explore a long-term collaboration.
The collaboration would see the Yorkshire based Forgemasters – which was passed in to public ownership this year following a deal with the Ministry of Defence – supply forgings to the Rolls-Royce UK Small Modular Reactor (SMR) fleet.
The project directly supports the UK’s civil nuclear renaissance and the development of SMRs in the UK, with Sheffield Forgemasters able to supply the complex, nuclear-grade demonstrator forgings as part of the regulatory process.
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The important components will benefit from the decades of experience Sheffield Forgemasters has built up and its world class delivery experience.
Tom Samson, Rolls-Royce SMR’s CEO, said: “Sheffield Forgemasters are world leaders in complex, safety-critical forgings and castings and we are incredibly fortunate to have their experience to support and enable our SMR programme.
“This agreement is the start of an enduring partnership and reflects our commitment to the UK supply chain as we look to re-build and re-energise the vital UK nuclear supply chain.”
The agreement was signed at Nuclear 21, the Nuclear Industry Association’s key industry event, which brings together stakeholders across the nuclear industry.
It follows the creation of Rolls-Royce SMR Ltd which has been established to bring forward and deliver the next generation of low cost, low carbon nuclear power technology.
Once fully operational the Rolls-Royce SMR business has the potential to create 40,000 UK jobs, primarily across the North and Midlands, with the potential for £52bn in economic benefits from export.
David Bond, CEO of Sheffield Forgemasters added: “SMR’s have the potential to become the standard for civil nuclear power generation and as an emerging market, fits extremely well with our long track record of supplying nuclear power components into the UK submarine programme.
“With a new investment fund of £400m to replace our defence critical assets, including the provision of a new 13,000 tonne forging line and 19 state-of-the-art machining centres, we will create much higher levels of manufacturing capability and efficiency, to the benefit of defence nuclear work, but with obvious cross-benefits for civil nuclear activity, including SMR’s.
“Rolls-Royce is advancing plans for factory assembled SMR’s in the UK and Sheffield Forgemasters is well positioned to be a UK supply chain partner in the delivery of complex, finished and semi-finished nuclear grade components into the SMR build programme.”
The Rolls Royce SMR is a based on proven nuclear technology, delivered in an innovative way, using offsite, factory built, modular assembly, removing construction complexity. This repeatable, standardised approach makes nuclear affordable, deliverable, scalable, global and investable.
