SMRs will be assembled from hundreds of factory-made modules, which will be transported to sites and then put together “like Lego bricks”.
The initial phase of the Sheffield University deal will see Rolls spend £2.7m on producing three prototype modules by the end of this year.
If that work is successful, the company will spend more than £15m making prototypes of each of the 15 types of modules that will be needed throughout a finished SMR.
Victoria Scott, chief manufacturing engineering at Rolls-Royce SMR, said: “Our investment in setting up this facility and building prototype modules is another significant milestone for our business.”
Professor Koen Lamberts, president and vice-chancellor of the University of Sheffield, said: “We are very proud that Rolls-Royce SMR has chosen to base its module development facility at our Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre.”
Oliver Coppard, South Yorkshire’s mayor, said: “This announcement cements South Yorkshire’s position as the leading place to build small modular reactors, a cutting-edge technology which will be a key part of the global transition to clean energy.”
SMRs are seen as potential game-changers for the nuclear industry because of their modular construction.
In theory, this means they should be quicker to build than traditional, large-scale nuclear power plants and significantly cheaper as well – providing efficiency throughout production at scale.
Rolls has previously said each SMR should cost about £2bn and will generate about 470 megawatts (MW) of electricity.
For comparison, Hinkley Point C is currently forecast to cost as much as £35bn and will deliver 3.3 gigawatts of power.
On current budgets and forecasts, it suggests every 100MWs of power generated by an SMR would be delivered at less than half the cost of equivalent power coming from Hinkley.