Great British Energy selects Jacobs for UK SMR planning services

Great British Energy – Nuclear has selected Jacobs to provide planning and consenting services for the United Kingdom’s planned small modular reactor projects, a move that shifts the programme deeper into the consent and site-preparation phase. The July 21 appointment matters because SMRs do not rise on reactor design alone; they also depend on planning submissions, land-use approval, environmental review and the paperwork that turns a preferred site into a buildable project.

Jacobs said its role covers planning services for SMR development and major project approvals. World Nuclear News said the US-based engineering group will provide strategic planning, consent support and leadership on key land-use planning activities, with around 6,000 staff across its UK operations. That makes the contract less a hardware announcement than a delivery tool, aimed at removing one of the biggest bottlenecks between policy decisions and construction.

The initial focus is set to fall on new nuclear development at Gwyndod, formerly Wylfa Newydd, and Oldbury. That matters because site-specific issues can easily slow nuclear projects even after a technology has been chosen. Planning and consenting work typically has to deal with local and national authority submissions, transport routes, emergency planning, environmental effects and public consultation, all of which can determine whether a project stays on schedule or stalls.

The appointment also lands after a run of earlier programme decisions that have already narrowed the field. On October 9, 2023, Great British Nuclear selected four companies for the next stage of the UK nuclear energy competition: Rolls-Royce SMR, GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy, Holtec Britain and Westinghouse. In April 2024, it issued an invitation to negotiate to the same four SMR companies. By September 25, 2025, the UK government had selected Rolls-Royce SMR as the preferred bidder to construct the country’s first small modular reactors.

Site work has advanced alongside that technology selection. A written statement to Parliament on November 13, 2025 said Wylfa in North Wales had been chosen to host the government-backed SMR programme, and the UK government had also said Great British Nuclear would buy two Hitachi sites for new nuclear development. Against that backdrop, Jacobs’ planning brief is aimed at the part of the pipeline that often decides whether a nuclear project remains a policy line item or becomes a physical build on the ground.