Rolls Royce Will Make Mini Nuclear Reactors That Can Become Operational By 2029

Nuclear energy is one of the cleanest ways to make electricity despite the inherent risks involved. While Japan is moving away from nuclear energy, many countries are still interested in it as it remains one of the cleanest ways to produce energy.

A traditional nuclear reactor requires a large area and years to build. Luxury carmaker Rolls Royce plans on changing this paradigm.

A company has created a new model of nuclear reactors which it calls "mini" nuclear reactors or small modular reactors. These reactors will be one-sixteenth of the size of a regular nuclear reactor. They will need an area of just 1.5 acres inside a total zone of 10 acres.

Rolls Royce believes this model can help provide nuclear energy at much cheaper costs.

“Building nuclear power stations is costly, complex and takes time…Our U.K. Small Nuclear Reactor is a low-cost alternative for a global market. With a modular design that’s built-in a factory, it can improve the certainty of delivery, reduce complexity, optimize safety,” the company stated on its website.

The smallest nuclear plant in the U.S., the R.E. Ginna nuclear plant, with just one reactor, covers an area of 426 acres. Rolls Royce's solution would help create many mini nuclear plants in a similar area. Because of their size, regular nuclear reactors take years to build and because of the complexities involved in creating such large plants, the cost also mostly escalates from the initial estimates for constructing such plants.

Rolls Royce’s plan would create nuclear reactors that can be delivered in chunks using regular trucks, according to Forbes. The company plans to make the first such plants operational in the U.K. by 2029.

Most of these small modular reactors, as the company calls them are expected to be situated in Cumbria or Wales. The company hopes to establish 10-15 such reactors in the U.K.

When it comes to nuclear power, energy experts are divided over whether to support it or not. While it seems the only way to achieve zero emissions energy by 2050, many experts favor renewable sources of energy such as solar energy because of the risks involved and the nuclear waste generated. A big risk would be a terrorist attack on such a site such as the recent one that took place in India.

Mini reactors could make nuclear energy compete in the market with solar and wind energy and may boost their deployment in developing countries as a source of energy. Even small towns may be able to have their own source of nuclear energy.

It remains to be seen how and whether nuclear energy is able to compete with renewable sources of energy or if it dies away like coal-based thermal energy, which is being phased out in many places globally.