South Yorkshire is set to host Britain’s first factory dedicated to building small modular reactors (SMRs), marking a significant boost for the region’s economy and the UK’s nuclear industry.
Holtec, a privately owned nuclear company headquartered in Florida, has chosen South Yorkshire as its preferred location for the £1.5 billion facility after considering sites across the country, including in the West Midlands, Cumbria, and Teesside.
The factory could create up to 3,000 high-tech jobs, manufacturing components for SMRs—a technology that could become central to the UK’s planned nuclear revival. Holtec is exploring several sites in the county, including areas around the city of Doncaster.
Gareth Thomas, Director of Holtec Britain, said: “Holtec Britain was impressed by the resounding interest in our new SMR factory across the UK and the strong support received by the local authorities during our engagements. South Yorkshire overcame stiff competition from other areas of the UK to be our preferred location for our advanced SMR factory.”
The region offers practical benefits for Holtec, including proximity to Sheffield Forgemasters, a specialist in complex castings required for reactor housings, and a skilled workforce rooted in heavy engineering traditions.
Oliver Coppard, South Yorkshire Mayor, commented: “In South Yorkshire, we’re building on hundreds of years of innovation and engineering heritage to create world-leading facilities, skills, and expertise today; assets that will power the clean energy transition in the UK and beyond. We are right at the cutting edge of the new nuclear, hydrogen, and sustainable aviation sectors, and proud to be home to the largest cleantech sector in the UK.”
SMRs are seen as a potential breakthrough in nuclear technology, aiming to reduce the cost and construction time of nuclear power plants. Unlike large reactors built on-site from scratch, SMRs are constructed from modules manufactured in factories and assembled on-site, which proponents say will make them cheaper and quicker to produce at scale.
Holtec is one of five companies vying for government funding to build the country’s first SMRs, alongside Rolls-Royce, Westinghouse, GE Hitachi, and NuScale. Great British Nuclear, the government agency overseeing the competition, is expected to narrow the shortlist from five to four companies later this month. Two winners are anticipated to be selected either late this year or in early 2025 and will be granted sites to develop.
