Rolls-Royce SMR is investing £12m ($15.9m) to open its first manufacturing development centre, “Pioneer Works,” in Derby. The non-nuclear facility, slated to open in late 2026, will establish the precision assembly, welding, and testing processes required to de-risk the deployment of its planned small modular reactor (SMR) fleet in the UK, Czechia, and Sweden.
The Rolls-Royce SMR, a 470 MWe design based on a small pressurised water reactor, will is designed to provide consistent baseload generation for at least 60 years. Some 90% of the SMR will be built in factory conditions, limiting on-site activity to assembly of prefabricated, pre-tested, modules which has the potential to drastically shorten build schedules.
Pioneer Works will house specialist engineering and manufacturing projects that are critical to the successful deployment of Rolls-Royce SMR’s first power plants. It will create and sustain around 40 highly skilled, long-term roles as the facility ramps up, spanning advanced engineering, welding, testing, precision assembly and manufacturing development, while helping train the next generation in these skills. The facility will develop and validate the techniques, technologies and processes required to assemble the primary circuit and highest integrity components key to the NPP.
The new facility will operate alongside Rolls-Royce SMR’s existing EXPERI (Experimental) facility at the University of Sheffield’s Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC). This serves as Rolls-Royce SMR’s Module Development Facility, primarily focused on the design, prototyping, and early-stage testing of the reactor’s building blocks. While the new Pioneer Works facility handles the final precision assembly, welding, and bulk component testing, EXPERI handles the foundational stages of the modular development process.
Together, these two facilities will underpin Rolls-Royce SMR’s delivery plan, helping move from design and prototype manufacture through to full modular assembly and power plant delivery. By separating the initial proof-of-concept prototyping at EXPERI from the rigorous component stress-testing and process finalisation at Pioneer Works, Rolls-Royce SMR can fully validate its “factory-built” modular approach before shipping parts to sites in the UK, Czechia, or Sweden.
The advanced techniques validated at Pioneer Works are critical to fulfilling international contracts and deploying the SMRs. In the UK, under contracts with Great British Energy-Nuclear (GBE-N) three units are to be built at the Wylfa site in Anglesey (Wales) selected by the government in November 2025. In April 2026 a two-stage delivery contract was signed with (GBE-N) with deployment scheduled for the mid-2030s.
In Czechia, Rolls-Royce SMR is contracted by ČEZ Group to advance 3 GWe of SMRs at the Temelín site. In April 2026 an Early Works Contract was signed to begin licensing, permitting, and environmental impact assessments for deployment in the late 2030s
In Sweden, Videberg Kraft (majority-owned by Vattenfall) selected Rolls-Royce SMR in June to deliver three reactors (1,500 MWe) for the Ringhals site. Early-stage planning and supply chain engagement is underway for deployment in the mid-2030s.
Ruth Todd CBE, 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.”
