Rolls-Royce SMR begins work on three-reactor Wylfa nuclear project

Great British Energy - Nuclear signed the contract with Rolls-Royce SMR on 13 April 2026, clearing the way for immediate technology design work on the UK’s first small modular reactor project at Wylfa in Ynys Môn. The deal moves the scheme out of policy mode and into site-specific delivery, with design refinement, regulatory engagement and planning now set to run ahead of a future final investment decision. The government said the three-reactor project is expected to support around 3,000 jobs at peak construction and provide at least 1,400 MW of capacity, enough electricity for around 3 million homes.

This is the point where the Wylfa story stops being a headline and starts looking like an industrial programme. Rolls-Royce SMR was chosen as preferred technology partner in June 2025, Wylfa was selected as the host site in November 2025, and the contract now gives the project a formal delivery structure. The government said £2.6 billion was allocated in the 2025 Spending Review to enable the contract and the wider programme, while GBE-N said it has already awarded more than £350 million in supply-chain contracts this year. That is the real shift here: not another announcement about nuclear ambition, but a funded path toward engineering, licensing and procurement.

The scale matters. A three-unit Wylfa is a much bigger commitment than a one-off demonstrator, because it creates a repeat-build site, a larger industrial workload and a clearer route to long-term supply-chain planning. The Welsh Government has said the site will host three Rolls-Royce reactors initially, with scope for an additional five later. Rolls-Royce SMR’s design is rated at 470 MWe, and the Office for Nuclear Regulation says it has completed Step 2 of the Generic Design Assessment, with assessment continuing and a public comments process in place.

Wylfa brings heavyweight nuclear history with it. The site was the final Magnox plant to be built, originally designed for 1,140 MW, and its two reactors generated 232 terawatt-hours before the station stopped producing electricity on 30 December 2015. GBE-N and Isle of Anglesey County Council signed a collaboration agreement on 25 March 2026 to support delivery and local benefits, while Welsh Government said on 24 March 2026 that it has long backed new nuclear at Wylfa as part of Wales’s future energy mix. Unite has argued the site could have justified a gigawatt-scale plant, but the contract now gives Britain something it has spent years promising and too often missing: a named site, a defined reactor fleet and actual work starting on the ground.