Diagnosing UK nuclear delivery problems

We kick off the Infrastructure Podcast for 2026 by talking about nuclear power and taking a close look at the much discussed - and much anticipated - small modular reactor programme being developed by Rolls Royce SMR.

My guest today is Ruth Todd CBE, Rolls-Royce SMR’s Operations and Supply Chain Director, the person charged with turning this long-standing ambition into a deliverable reality. And having led the UK’s hugely successful Covid Vaccine Task Force back in 2020/21 and worked on High Speed 2, Ruth is no stranger to a massive challenge.

Certainly, delivering new nuclear in the UK is up there in the league table of major challenges. As the recent Fingleton Review put it, the sector is facing strategic failure at a moment of national importance. 

We are certainly at a moment of profound transition. The global energy system is under strain from rising prices, geopolitical uncertainty, and the urgent need to decarbonise. 

But it is also true that the UK government has responded with one of the most ambitious interventions in its energy history: major investment in Sizewell C, fusion research, and crucially, £2.5bn to accelerate the development and deployment of SMRs.

And at the heart of this renewed ambition for a new “golden age of nuclear energy” is the Rolls-Royce Small Modular Reactor programme - described as the UK’s first domestic nuclear technology in more than twenty years and designed to provide stable, affordable, emission-free energy for at least six decades. 

Rolls-Royce SMR’s approach uses factory-built modules, a standardised design, and a turnkey engineering, manufacture and assembly model which aims to reduce the cost and delivery challenges that have plagued traditional large-scale nuclear projects. And it has the go-ahead to deploy the first three SMRs at Wylfa in Anglesey.

Each will capable of powering a million homes, with a design that is up to eighteen months ahead of any competitor in a European regulatory process. Which arguably means Rolls-Royce SMR now sits at the forefront of what could become one of the country’s most significant green export industries and the key to thousands of new skilled jobs and longlasting local legacy.

It's certainly an exciting moment - so let’s hear more

Resources

• Rolls Royce SMR
• UK Government nuclear July announcement 
• UK and Czechia to lead global race on small modular reactors
• The Fingleton Review
• Announcement for Wylfa site 
• Ruth Todd CBE