Rolls-Royce plans £12m nuclear training centre

Rolls-Royce has announced plans to open a £12m facility in Derby which would act as a "training centre" to help its future workforce build nuclear power plants.

The site - named the Pioneer Works - is set to open in late 2026 and will be a non-nuclear site, housing specialist engineering as well as manufacturing projects, it said.

The firm said the new centre was needed to carry out testing to help its small modular reactor (SMR) projects in the UK, Czech Republic and Sweden.

SMRs, sometimes called "mini nukes", work on the same principle as large reactors, using a nuclear reaction to generate heat that produces electricity.

The company said the centre - located at Northedge Business Park, Alfreton Road - would create about 40 "highly skilled" jobs including roles in advanced engineering and manufacturing development.

As it is an existing industrial site, no planning application was required, other than to change the external signage, Rolls-Royce said, with a submission expected later in the year.

Ruth Todd, Rolls-Royce SMR's operations and supply chain director, said: "Pioneer Works will be at the centre of our ambition to transform the way nuclear projects are delivered, creating highly skilled jobs, supporting the wider supply chain and harnessing British engineering know-how to drive forward the next generation of nuclear power.

"I'm also incredibly proud that this facility will act as our first training centre to create a future workforce which will help build Rolls-Royce SMR's 'factory-built' nuclear power plants around the world."

Catherine Atkinson Labour MP for Derby North, said the proposed facility would put the city at the "centre of one of the biggest engineering opportunities of the coming years."

Rolls-Royce said the Pioneer Works site would operate alongside Rolls-Royce SMR's existing EXPERI facility at the University of Sheffield's Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre in South Yorkshire.

The company said in April it had signed a contract with Great British Energy - Nuclear to begin site-specific design for the UK's first small modular reactors at Wylfa in Wales.

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